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From the 

Land of the Mid^iight Stcn 

To the Volga. 



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FROM THE 

Land of the Midnight Sun 



TO THE 



Volga 



BY FRANCIS C. SESSIONS 

President of the Ohio Historical and Archaeological Society 



Illustrated by E. W. DEMING 



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New York 

WELCH, FRACKER COMPANY 

1890 



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From the Land of the Midnight Sun 
to the Volga. 



I. 



TRAVELING TOWARD THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 

WE left Copenhagen with regret ; it 
was one of the most attractive cities 
we had seen. Prince Bonaparte, of France, 
arrived at our hotel, just before we left, with 
his wife and five servants. He had the pecu- 
liar Bonaparte nose and features, and it was 
at least interesting to look at the descendant 
of one who became so prominent in the 
world's history. 

We crossed by steamer the Malmo Sound 
to Malmo, and here first entered Sweden, 
and took cars for Gottenborg. The coun- 
try through which we pass looks much like 
the northern part of Vermont and New 



lo From the Land of the Midnight Stm 

Hampshire, with its stony fields and stone- 
wall fences, red houses and barns, white 
birch trees, brooks, small lakes full of water 
lilies, white meeting houses, and the old- 
fashioned well-sweep for drawing water, 
which we used to see in boyhood days fifty 
years ago. 

Our first dinner in Sweden was peculiar in 
finding a table loaded with food, and every- 
one pitching in for themselves. There are 
no servants, and if you do not get enough 
to eat, it is your own fault. The good- 
heartedness of the Scandinavians is pro- 
verbial, and it was first observed on giving a 
little girl ten ore, equal to one cent — she 
shook hands with all of us, and curtsied 
several times. 

We begin at once to see why Sweden is 
called the Land of Three Thousand Lakes, 
for we pass lakes continually. We stop over 
night at Gottenborg, We were fortunate 
again in having a letter to another son of 
Professor Sinding, who is connected with 
the largest cable and telegraph construction 
company in Europe. He went with us over 
the city, and we noticed canals and bridges in 
every direction, reminding us of Amsterdam. 

Gottenborg is a beautiful city, and in our 



To the Volga. 



ride to the Oreas Mountain, to get a view of 
the city and surrounding country, we passed 
numerous pleasant-looking villas. One at 
the foot of the Oreas is owned by Oscar 
Dickson, the wealthiest man in Scandinavia, 
who has fitted out several scientific expedi- 
tions to the Arctic Ocean. Professor Nor- 
denskjold is at the head of the last expedi- 
tion, and on account of his scientific attain- 
ments was offered by King Oscar the title 
of Baronet, which he refused. 

At this place the celebrated Gottenborg 
licensing system was first adopted. We have 
heard it discussed in the United States a 
great deal, and I was anxious to know how 
it worked, as many opinions have been ex- 
pressed in regard to its effect in restraining 
drinking. Our friend, Mr. Sinding, spoke 
highly of the good results, and said that 
drunkenness had diminished greatly. The 
leading feature of the system of licensing, 
or rather of non-licensing, is that a temper- 
ance company is formed to buy licenses and 
existing *-ights, and to open a limited num- 
ber of s.iops for the sale of pure and un- 
adulterated spirits, and control the sale to 
proper persons, and none in small quantities 
to drunkards, the manage/ having no interest 



12 From the La?id of the Midnight Sun 

in the sale of the spirits. After deducting 
interest at the rate of five per cent, on the 
capital expended, the company hands the 
whole of the surplus profits over to the 
municipality. Mr. Sinding said the profit 
was large, and was used for helping the poor, 
etc., of the city. I have learned its good 
effects in many of the cities in Sweden and 
Norway, and I shall try to get all the in- 
formation I can in regard to it. All the 
larger cities in Scandinavia are adopting it. 

Our train to Christiana followed, for some 
distance, the Trollhatta Canal, which is one 
of the most remarkable products of engineer- 
ing skill, uniting Gottenborg and Stockholm, 
and uniting the Vennor and Veltor Lakes 
with the Gota River. The greatest difficulty 
met with was the Trollhatta Falls, which are 
a succession of rapids about one hundred 
and twenty feet high, one of the finest falls 
in Sweden, but to us who have Niagara and 
Yosemite Falls, did not seem worth hardly a 
notice. 

The great Swedenborg, who was a native 
of Stockholm, I believe, was one of the 
engineers to draw plans for the erection of 
sluices at Trollhatta, commissioned by King 
Karl XII., at the beginning of the eighteenth 



To the Volga. 13 



century. The whole length of the canal is 
two hundred and forty miles. It is quite a 
curiosity to see the large steamers going 
through the locks as if going up a steep 
precipice. We noticed printed on our cars 
as follows : " Gjennemgaaende till Christiana^'' 
which means through to Christiana. 

On passing the line from Sweden to Nor 
way we notice at once a different country, 
for it is the mountains which separate Sweden 
from Norway. From the flat country of the 
former we have the mountains and pictures- 
que views of the latter. The houses are 
painted yellow. All the stations are beauti- 
ful architectural depots. The farmers are 
cutting their grass, and the curious poles, 
about eight feet high, stuck up around the 
meadows, we could not understand, until we 
saw them placing the cut grass around them 
to dry. In some fields long poles are put 
horizontally, and the hay is laid upon them 
to dry, the season being so wet and uncer- 
tain, that it is necessary for them to hang up 
the grass so that the wind may help the sun 
in drying it. 

Christiana, the capital of Norway, is 
reached, and although nine o'clock at night, 
the sun is just setting. Our dinner is an- 



14 Frojii the Land of the Midnight Sun 

nounced, and we find a great variety of cold 
meats and cold fish. We have been travel- 
ing all day and are hungry, and after we have 
fully satisfied our appetites, we are told that 
the hot meats are now ready. Only a few 
could remain to digest the hot meats. After- 
ward we were told that it is customary in 
Norway to have the cold meats first. 

We leave Christiana by the steamer Orion, 
and we enjoy the delightful scenery down 
the Christiana Fjord for seventy miles, until 
we come to the stormy Skagarrak. It is 
about two thousand six hundred miles to the 
North Cape and return. The fjords are 
numerous. One, the Trondjhem, is one hun- 
dred and twenty miles long. A fjord is an 
arm of the sea and is pronounced ford. The 
scenery the first day is picturesque and grand, 
with Christiana in the background, and 
numerous islands and hills covered with yel- 
low houses, looking in the distance like chil- 
dren's play-houses, and the little steamers 
and sail-boats plying hither and thither. We 
soon come to Horten, an important naval 
station, where the fjord is five miles wide. 
In some places, however, it is only five hun- 
dred feet wide. It is a splendid situation for 
a fort, and well sheltered. 



To the Volga. 15 



A short distance from here, at Gokstad 
Sandefjord, is the mound which contained 
the " Viking Galley," which is now in Chris- 
tiana. We soon leave behind us the rich, 
green vegetation, and nothing is seen but the 
barren rocks, which almost touch each other 
from island to island. As we go out to sea it 
begins to grow stormy and rough, and the 
old stormy Skagarrak keeps up its reputation. 
Most of the passengers had left the deck for 
their berths, only two of us remained " to 
fight it out on that line," if it took all night. 
Soon my companion succumbed, and rushed 
to the side of the ship and showed signs of 
distress. I was determined to keep my repu- 
tation as a good sailor, gained by crossing 
the Atlantic five times, and the English chan- 
nel, and the Irish and North seas a number 
of times without being sick, but at last old 
" Skagarrak " conquered. 

We were glad to leave the ship at Eker- 
sund, two hundred miles from Christiana, 
and charter a train on a little railroad run- 
ning across the promontory twenty-eight 
miles, and escape a rougher sea, and wait the 
arrival of the steamer at Staranger. This 
little road is built on purpose to accommo- 
date passengers on the steamers, who want 



1 6 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

to escape the most stormy place to the North 
Cape. Although the road is only twenty- 
eight miles long, it is so crooked that it took 
our express two and one-half hours to run 
the distance. 

We are glad to get to this quaint old city 
of Bergen, with its thirty thousand to forty 
thousand population, and after getting well 
domiciled at our hotel, make for the Bergen 
bank to draw some money. The main street 
is called " Strandgarden." We are at once 
amused at the Norwegian dress of the wo- 
men, so odd and quaint, with their high, 
white caps, and large white capes, and new 
and yellow bands, and bright handkerchiefs 
and bodices, and heavy, plain woolen dresses, 
with full, plain skirts and wooden shoes. We 
get the wrong direction to the bank and step 
into a dry goods store, and make out to ask 
them the way to the bank, and they send 
with us a clerk to show the way. On arriv- 
ing we find a splendid banking room. We 
were struck at the absence of protection from 
thieves around the teller's counter, and, look- 
ing around, find that I am the only one of 
the customers with my hat on. When they 
come into the bank they take off their hats 
and seat themselves on a bench, until their 



To the Volga. 17 



turn comes to be waited upon ; no talking, 
except on their business, and then only in a 
low tone. 

When my business was finished I looked 
around and found the same young clerk-who 
had come in with me to show me back to my 
hotel ; I tried to make him understand that 
I was obliged to him, but that I was going 
to the fish market, this being Saturday, and 
the greatest fish market in the world ; he 
finally shook hands and left me — everywhere 
the people are so kind and attentive. 

The fish market is curious enough ; the 
end of the harbor comes up to the side of 
Torvet Square, and along the quay are three 
horizontal iron railings, and on the water 
side the numerous fishing boats come up, 
bows inward, the fish lying loose all over the 
boat, and the owners stand and barter with 
the customers on the quay, and hand down 
their buckets to get the fish. I did not see as 
beautiful a display of fish even at the great 
Fishery Exhibition at London, which had 
just been opened at Hyde Park, when we 
were there. 

Here were all sizes and colors, some large 
ones resembling in color our gold fish, some 
with all the colors of the rainbow ; large, 



1 8 From the Land of the Midnight Sua 

splendid salmon; another like our white fish, 
but much larger. We have seen only one 
meat shop in Bergen ; fish is cheap and 
plentiful, and seems to be the main article of 
food. All along the wharf were vessels un- 
loading their dried codfish, which were piled 
up like cordwood, filling the warehouses ; 
these fish, we understood, are shipped to 
Spain and other Catholic countries, where 
they do not eat meat on Fridays. 

On our walk about the city we see some 
terrible scurvy-disease covering the faces, 
ears, hands, arms and bodies of some of the 
people. We learn that it is leprosy. This 
frightful disease is prevalent in Norway 
among the peasants, especially on the coast, 
on account of eating so much salt-fish with- 
out vegetables, and also due to a lack of 
nourishing food, and living in damp houses, 
where they salt the fish. We passed a hospi- 
tal for lepers, and the lepers are not allowed 
to marry, so that a hereditary disease is kept 
in check. 

In front of a great fur store we see skins 
of fresh-killed bears, and those of other wild 
animals ; a large trade is done here in furs. 
The Gottenborg temperance plan is in vogue 
here, and we have seen only two drunken 



To the Volga. 19 



persons, one was a colored sailor from Africa, 
and he was more of curiosity than a monkey 
show the other side of the street, on account 
of his color. 

Our Sunday in old Bergen was a most de- 
lightful one ; the weather was cool and the 
sun shown bright, which is an unusual thing, 
and it has the reputation of being the most 
uncertain place as to weather in Europe ; a 
pleasant day is an exception ; the people 
were out en masse, and the churches were 
crowded, judging from the three Lutheran 
churches which we attended, and many of the 
worshippers had to stand up. 

We could not understand a word the priest 
(the ministers are all called priests in Scandi- 
navia) said, but he had an earnest, scholarly 
manner, and held the attention of the audi- 
ence closely to the end ; he wore a gown and 
had on a high, wide ruffle, which made him 
look like the old pictures of John Huss or 
Calvin. The ritual was simple ; almost the 
whole service was sung, even the scripture 
was monotoned. The precentor, in a black 
frock coat, stood on one side of the priest 
and faced toward him instead of the choir 
and congregation ; the singing was slow and 
drawling. 



20 Fro?7i the La7id of the Midnight Sun 

I learn that there are scarcely any churches 
in Norway or Sweden, but the state churches, 
which are orthodox Lutheran, and religion 
seems to have a strong hold upon the people. 
The priests are state officials, and are paid to 
perform prescribed duties by the state, and 
they must be graduates of a university. 

After the communion service there was a 
large number of babies presented for bap- 
tism. The priest, after reading the ritual, 
went around and made the sign of the cross 
with his hands over the face of each babe, and 
then he went around and blessed each one ; 
then the mothers came forward to the front, 
and he read the covenant to them, and took 
water in his hands and poured it over the 
head of the child three times, and said, 
"Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 

We noticed, as we visited the cemetery, to 
see the grave of Ole Bull, who was a native 
of Bergen, and was buried here, that there 
was a large number of women and girls 
washing off the monuments and gravestones, 
and placing beautiful bouquets of flowers 
upon the graves. We understand this is the 
pleasant custom every Saturday night 
through the summer, and in the winter 
evergreens are used. Roses and flowers had 







icp:lani)krs. 



To the Volga. 21 



just made their appearance this summer, and 
this was the first Sunday for flower decorat- 
ing this year ; and more than usual attention 
was given to mowing the grass and making 
ev^erything attractive for the masses who 
visit the hallowed spot on Sunday, Ole 
Bull's grave was in the center of the ceme- 
tery, where walks extend from east to west 
and north to south. There was no stone to 
mark his grave, but the earth was raised 
over it, and it was covered with English ivy, 
and on the top was a beautiful bouquet and 
a number of white pond lilies. 

We had a beautiful sun, although at nine 
o'clock at night, and I never saw the sky, 
even in Italy, more soft and mellow. 

On our way to the hotel we noticed the 
servant girls were scouring the brass knobs 
of the doors and washing the entrances. 
This is also the custom every Saturday night. 

We never saw such beautiful calceolarias 
and pelargoniums as are at the windows of 
almost every house. As we passed up the 
most beautiful street for private residences, 
there were many villas high up on the 
mountain side, overlooking the two lakes 
and the fjord. The street is called "King 
Oscar's Garden," and the flags were flying 



2 2 Fj'om the Land of the Midnight Sun 

from the residences of the different con- 
suls residing on the street ; and from a 
beautiful villa we noticed the stars and 
stripes, which looked to us more beautiful 
than ever in comparison v/ith the others ; 
and then it reminded us, in this far off land, 
of our home, and we took off our hats in re- 
verence of the old flag. 

The little dun-colored Norwegian horses, 
more like ponies, are very tough and intelli- 
gent, and when you go past them, one feels 
like patting them^ they look at one so re- 
sponsively. When the driver stops them in 
the street, and wishes to leave them, he 
fastens a cord to the cariole and then around 
the horse's foot, just below the fetlock. We 
had quite an experience in ordering a cariole 
for an evening ride. We wanted one with 
one horse and places for two persons, instead 
of that we found at the door of the hotel one 
cariole with two horses and seats for four 
persons, and one cariole with one horse and 
for one person. The liveryman thought we 
ought to take them as they were ordered the 
day before, and were in great demand. We 
had the pleasure, therefore, of inviting our 
party to take an evening ride with us ; so 
much for not speaking the language. 



To the Volga. 23 



The ride, by steamer, among the thousands 
of islands, with the bare rocks and curious 
shapes, some as high as three thousand feet, 
and the water falls, are almost as grand as 
the Yosemite valley, in California, and as 
picturesque as Lake George, in our own 
country, and Lake Lucerne in Switzerland ; 
and all this scenery continues along the coast 
of one thousand miles. We stop at several 
fishing towns, and get off the steamer to take 
a look at the natives. The women all look 
sad and bent over, with their eyes cast on the 
ground, high cheek-bones and low foreheads, 
and wear coarse flannel dresses and high- 
colored shawls upon their heads. 

Some of the towns are situated on three or 
four islands, and little steamers go and come, 
which give them the appearance of a minia- 
ture Venice. We are glad to come to 
Throndhjem, and remain three or four days, 
and take excursions into the country, and can 
well unite with the old song, " Det er saa in 
ferest in Throndhjem hvile," '^ 'Tis so plea- 
sant in Throndhjem to dwell." It is about 
the latitude of southern Iceland, and the 
largest northermost town in Europe, and has 
a population of from twenty to twenty-five 
thousand. 



24 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

Throndhjem was the old capital of Norway 
until the liberation in 1814 ; it lies on a pen- 
insula, and on the beautiful fjord, after which 
it is named, and which we had just come up. 
The cathedral here is the oldest and finest in 
Scandinavia, and is built on the spot where 
Saint Olaf was buried, and attracts to this place 
multiudes of pilgrims from Norway and other 
countries. Olaf landed here in A. D. 995, he 
found the people pagans ; having himself 
been converted through English missionaries, 
he came to Norway from that land and set 
about converting the people, and to him is 
given the credit of converting the Norwe- 
gians to the Christian religion. 

Olaf was killed in a great battle fought 
near here in 1030, and he has been ever since 
regarded as the patron saint of the Scandi- 
navian churches ; and Christianity became 
permanently and securely fixed in spite of 
the political and religious disturbances. The 
great cathedral erected to his memory, and 
having been several times nearly destroyed, 
is being restored. In the eleventh and 
twelfth centuries the kings of Norway were 
buried here ; by the Constitution of Norway 
all the sovereigns of the country are required 
to come to Throndhjem to be crowned in the 



To the Volga. 25 



cathedral. Oscar II., the present King, and 
the Queen came here in 1873, and the cere- 
mony was performed in this old cathedral ; 
thus the memory of Saint Olaf is kept fresh 
in the minds of the people. Our courier in- 
formed us that Longfellow spent some time 
in Norway, and translated a poem, which, if 
I remember correctly, w^as entitled, " Saint 
Olaf." The first line of one verse is 
" Saint Olaf, he rideth over the plain." 

The views from the mountain called Bloese- 
voldbakken, which we ascended, rewarded us 
well for the tiresome walk, as did also a 
walk to a beautiful waterfall, called Lerfos, 
upper and lower. 

The United States Consul informs us that 
the exportations from the United States are 
increasing, and consist mostly of petroleum 
and agricultural machines, and other articles 
are finding their way here ; I noticed our 
steamer unloading at one of the docks kegs 
of paint marked "Gloucester, Mass." 

The words of the Norwegian language 
seem so long that it is almost impossible to 
pronounce them, and some seem odd enough 
to us ; over a book store was a sign with, 
" Bog-og Papierhandle," on it, which means 
Book and Paper Store. 



26 Fro7n the Land of the Mid7iight Sun 

The living at the hotels is abundant ; we 
have several kinds of fish at every meal and 
various kinds of meat, including bear and 
reindeer flesh. The air is cool and bracing, 
and one feels ready to do full justice at 
every meal. 

After passing through an infinity of small 
islands, we come to an island called Torgen, 
with a mountain called Torghatta (marked 
hat). The mountain, eight hundred feet high, 
resembles a hat ; our steamer stops, that all 
who desire may ascend and observe an aper- 
ture through the mountain ; it is about sixty- 
two feet high, and one can see through the 
aperture the distant sea with the vessels and 
shipping. 



To the Volga. 27 



11. 



THE TORGHATTA MOUNTAINS. LAPLAND. HAM- 
MERFEST. CHARACTER OF THE LAPS. 

THERE is a legend connected with Tor- 
ghatta Mountain which represents "a 
giantess who was pursued by her lover while 
her brother attempted to rescue her. The 
torghatta, or hat, of the latter, having been 
pierced by an arrow shot by the amorous 
lover, the sun shone through the aperture, 
and metamorphosed the distressed maiden 
into stone — the pursuer being, at this junc- 
ture, only one hundred and five miles away ! " 
In passing the giantess the natives sometimes 
raise their hats with mock ceremony. 

At one place a bride and groom came 
aboard, and a large number of boats with 
young people accompanied them to the 
steamer. It was a gay scene, as the steamer 
departed, to see the girls flirt their handker- 
chiefs with the words " Farvell ! farvell ! " 
The word is spelled with a 2^ y there is no w 



2 8 From the Land of the Midfiight Sun 

in the Norwegian language, and v is used in- 
stead. 

At Svolvaer, a fishing town, we go ashore, 
and find only a few houses on the rocks, and 
all over the town are posters announcing a 
theatre. We inquire for the theatre, and are 
pointed to a tent ; the performance is unique 
enough, and is easily moved from place to 
place for the amusement of the poor fisher- 
men and their families. 

All these towns are occupied by the families 
of fishermen who are off to the Lofodon Is- 
lands and other places. We have on board 
two officials of the Norwegian Government, 
who are intelligent, and give us much valu- 
able information. In speaking of these fisher- 
men, one of the officials said, at one of the 
islands he called on the priest, where there 
was a small church, and inquiring in regard 
to his success, the priest replied : " Our 
church and our cemetery are occupied by 
women and children. You go into the latter, 
and you will only see the graves of women 
and children ; all the men are drowned at 
the fisheries ; sometimes as large a number 
as five hundred will be lost at one time in a 
terrible storm." 

We soon arrive in Lapland, and a number 



To the Volga. 29 



of Laps come on board, and are a great 
curiosity to us all. They say that they have 
only a small herd of reindeer, and have just 
come over from Sweden. Their dress is of 
reindeer skins, and is very peculiar, quite as 
odd as the dress of Indians. There are about 
twenty thousand Laplanders in Norwa}^, and 
in all Scanamavia only thirty thousand. It 
seems as if they are dwindling away as fast 
as the Indians of North America. The Laps 
once dominated the whole of Scandinavia. 
They were once a race of hunters, and the 
reindeer is the whole source of their wealth, 
and was, no doubt, formerly an object of 
chase only. 

We arrive at Tromsoe, the capital of Lap- 
land, and take a walk through the old town, 
but defer our visit to their camp and herds of 
reindeer until our return from the land of the 
midnight sun. 

We have been remaining up all night to 
witness the sun, that does not go below the 
horizon in this region for nearly three 
months — from May to August — and does not 
appear for nearly three months in the winter; 
it is dark from December first until the last 
of January, so that lamps have to be used all 
the time. When light comes, they celebrate 



3© Fro7n the Land of the Midnight Stin 

it with firing of guns, dancing and a general 
holiday. There has been no darkness since 
we entered the Arctic circle ; indeed, for 
several days we could see to read all night. 
At Tromsoe we sat up all night to watch the 
sun, and, as it does not set, we expected to 
see it ; but the mountains intervened, and we 
did not see it at twelve midnight, but could 
see its rays on all the distant mountains in 
the wxst, and on the hill sides. It had a pe- 
culiar rosy hue, and was one of the most at- 
tractive views in our life. We did not get a 
view of the sun itself until about one o'clock 
in the morning. 

We arrive at Hammerfest, the most north- 
ern town in Europe, or, I believe, in the 
world, and leave at once for the North Cape, 
and remain up all night, and at twelve mid- 
night the Captain sounds the whistle, and 
the sun is about twice the size of its disc 
above the horizon, a shout goes up, and we 
have a splendid view of the midnight sun, 
and are well satisfied with our journey of 
nearly five thousand miles to see it. 

The sun at twelve midnight was one half a 
point east of north ; it seemed to move along 
the horizon for awhile and then commenced 
rising in the heavens. We steam along with 



To the Volga. 31 

intense interest for North Cape, watching the 
sun all the time. We cannot express our 
feelings, all is hushed in silence. Carlyle 
revels in the idea that '' while all nations are 
asleep, we stand here in the presence of that 
great power which will wake them all." 

Each one has his own peculiar thoughts, 
and much has been written, but words fail to 
express our individual sensation. We have 
read and studied in our geography, half a 
century ago, that in this part of the world 
the sun shone all the time for six months, 
and darkness reigned for six months, but it 
is a little less than three months. 

We soon reach the North Cape, and go 
ashore in our little boats to ascend the cape, 
which is about one thousand feet high. The 
ascent is steep and rugged. Creeping, some- 
times on our hands and knees, with singular 
feelings about the region we are in, we get 
to the top and walk about three miles to the 
end of the promontory over the rocky ascent, 
until we look off toward that great unknown 
Arctic ocean, and it seems as if we had come 
to the end of the earth, and were gazing upon 
the confines of the eternal regions, that we 
saw in the distance the outlines of the land of 
which it is said ''there is no night there." 



32 From the Land of the Midnight Sufi 

We are told that we are only two days' sail 
from the original ice, and that three days' 
sail will take us as far north as where the 
Jeanette was lost. On the top was a monu- 
ment, erected to the memory of the time, in 
July, eighteen hundred and seventy-three, 
when King Oscar II. visited the place. It 
was a granite shaft seven feet high, imbedded 
in a strong stone wall. Last winter it was 
blown over, showing the great power of the 
wind here. 

We take a last look at the ocean, and a 
Russian steamer is in view, which is sup- 
posed to be hunting for whales. A few other 
fishing boats are seen. On our way down we 
gather some twenty varieties of arctic flowers, 
some very beautiful, and the ladies take them 
to press as a memento of this visit. 

When we arrive at the ship the fishing 
lines are out, and those that remained had 
their own sport fishing for flounders. We 
have had flounders for breakfast, flounders 
for dinner, and flounders for supper ; and we 
expect, when we get on the sea, from all ac- 
counts of the roughness of the voyage around 
the cape, we shall ^^X. floundered all night, or, 
rather, I forgot there is no night here. We 
have got about used to sleeping during the 



To the Volga. 33 



time that it is day here, and watching the sun 
when it is night with us in America. 

We stop at the Norpolanhotel (North Pole 
Hotel), and the fishy smell all over the old 
town of Hammerfest is terrible to endure. 
About fifty fishing vessels are starting off for 
the fisheries, and it is an interesting sight. 
Such jabbering and talking is jargon itself. 
On the high rocks on shore are the women 
and children of the fishermen, watching their 
fathers and brothers, who may never return, 
depart. 

There are large herds of reindeer near here, 
and the laps are about the town, selling their 
reindeer shoes, and other things peculiar to 
their habits. 

This town of Hammerfest was a scene of 
British arrogance in 1853. It seems that 
some English merchants here wanted to get 
some of their goods into port for less than 
the duty, and the authorities confiscated 
them. After considerable talk in Parliament, 
two men-of-war were sent here, and de- 
manded of the authorities sixty thousand 
pounds sterling, or two hundred and forty 
thousand dollars, else they would bombard 
the town. Finally, the Norze bank, in 
Christiana, agreed to advance the money and 



34 From the Land of the Midnight Sim 

save the town, and they were to pay so much 
per year. It was a great sacrifice for so poor 
a town. 

We leave this wonderful region with regret ; 
it would be delightful to stay and see the 
sun in its present condition for weeks, and 
visit the fishing places in the vicinity. Fish- 
ing is the entire income, and when the fish 
fail the people are poor enough ; last year 
was a bad season and the whole business of 
Norway is affected by it. From all accounts 
the fishermen of Spitzbergen have struck a 
"bonanza." Report has just come that five 
fishermen from Hammerfest had shot five 
hundred seals in eighteen hours, and could 
have taken more, but their guns became too 
hot. The men lie fiat on the ice and when 
the seals' heads appear above the water shoot 
them. 

I take another look at the North Cape and 
call to mind the words of our own Long- 
fellow : 

" And there uprose before me 
Upon the water's edge, 
The huge and haggard shape 
Of that unknown North Cape, 
Whose form is like a wedge." — 

which seems to stand like a rocky battlement 



To the Volga. 35 



against the dashing water from the North 
Pole. 

Our visit to the camp of the Laplanders 
from Tromsoe was exceedingly interesting ; 
we walked over a rough country for some 
distance, and in a valley under the mountains 
came suddenly upon their huts ; they are 
made of sticks stuck in the ground, dome- 
shaped, and covered with sod, with a hole in 
the top to let out the smoke from the fire in 
the center over which a pot is suspended. 

We peeped in and all looked so forbidding 
that we hesitated to go in, for fear of fleas 
and dirt. Around the wigwam or hut sat 
several women at work making shoes of rein- 
deer hides, spoons of their horns, purses and 
various articles to sell. The dogs were hav- 
ing a fight and things did not look inviting, 
but I ventured in and was glad enough to 
retreat at once. 

A short distance from the encampment was 
a herd of reindeer numbering four or five 
hundred, and another drove was coming 
down the mountains ; they were a great curi- 
osity to us, with their long horns, and looked 
much like our deer, only larger ; they are 
mainly used for their milk, and are milked 
twice a week, and their milk is the chief food 



36 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

of the Laps. We tasted some of it and found 
it too strong to drink without diluting with 
water. We did not get a sledge ride after 
reindeer, on account o*f the snow being want- 
ing, but we saw some of their sledges which 
are made in the shape of a small boat or 
skiff. The reindeer are attached to the 
sledge and the Lap drives with a rope, and 
from all accounts the ride must be an exhil- 
erating one. 

The Laps in this encampment own, about 
five or six thousand reindeer, they are worth 
about four dollars each and are scattered 
about the mountains in different herds ; when 
they are allowed to go out of the pen they 
present an interesting sight, as they wind their 
way up the mountain, with the dogs keeping 
them from running away, and the unearthly 
screeches of the Laps add zest to the scene. 

The Laplanders are of Mongolian type, 
small of statue, high cheek bones, low fore- 
head, light hair, small boned and little mus- 
cles. The dress of the men and women is 
the same, and it is difficult to distinguish 
them apart — the only way to do so was from 
the longer tangled hair of the women. 

We were quite interested in a little blue- 
eyed baby, strapped into a kind of birch' 



To the Volga. 37 

bark cradle or shell, with a hole at one end ; 
the shape was like an elongated ^^'g^ and the 
mother had a strap across her back and held 
it in that way while about her work or when 
going from camp to camp. 

The girls have a primitive way of weaving 
fancy-colored garters to sell ; they attach a 
cord to a white birch bush, and drop down 
upon the ground, with the different colored 
threads in their hands, the work is all done 
with the hands, no shuttle, and the ladies 
thought it quite ingenious. 

Their dress is of reindeer skins, trimmed 
with bright red flannel, with a long frock 
reaching to their knees, with a belt around 
the waist, in which they carry a knife ; they 
wear a round cap made of reindeer skins, 
which is also trimmed with red flannel. 

They are a dirty, filthy-looking people, 
and look as if they never used ablutions. 
They seemed, as much interested in the dress 
of the ladies of our party as we were in theirs, 
and they would walk around the ladies, point- 
ing to each other at what seemed to amuse 
them, and asking for pins. 

We understand from a missionary, who was 
on our steamer, that the Government of Nor- 
way sends teachers and preachers among 



38 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

them, and they are doing all they can to ele- 
vate them ; they have their children all con- 
firmed by the Lutheran missionaries, but as 
they are continually wandering about from 
place to place, it is difficult to make much 
impression in civilizing them. They are 
allowed to intermarry with the Swedes and 
Norwegians, and in time may become entirely 
extinct as a race ; a great change from the 
powerful race which once dominated the 
whole of Scandinavia. They are an honest 
people, and farmers say they never intrude. 

In Sweden and Finland the Laps are usu- 
ally divided into fisher, mountain and forest 
Laps ; the latter two are the true representa- 
tives of the race. In Norway they are classed 
as sea Laps, river Laps and mountain Laps ; 
the first two settled, the last wandering or 
nomadic. Their habits are most conserva- 
tive, and can hardly have altered since the 
far distant time when they first tamed the 
reindeer. Reindeer form the chief wealth of 
the Laps, and Thompson's lines may still be 
taken as an accurate description of the uses 
to which their skins and horns are put, al- 
though one would think spoons more likely 
than cups to be carved out of the latter ; but 
then where would a great deal of poetry be 



To the Volga. 39 



if the poet could not draw on his poetic 
license at pleasure ; perhaps, however, 
Thomson alluded to the milk — 

" The reindeer form their riches ; these their tents, 
Their robes, their beds, and all their homely wealth 
Supply ; their wholesome food and cheerful cups." 

The mountain Laps have learned to drink 
coffee and wear stout Norwegian cloth, but 
they set as much store by the reindeer as 
ever. A poor family will have fifty and up- 
ward in a herd, the middle classes three hun- 
dred to seven hundred, and the richest one 
thousand or more. The reindeer is as be- 
loved by the Lap as his pig by the Irishman, 
and the reindeer often sleep in his hut in 
much the same fashion. The Lap will whis- 
per to his reirkdeer when harnessing him to 
his sleigh, and will tell him where he is to go, 
and declares he understands him. The rein- 
deer is much like a stag, only smaller ; all the 
people, animals and trees in Lapland are 
very diminutive, the men are mostly under 
five feet high, and the women under four feet 
nine inches ; so great are the rigors of the 
climate in this, as in all countries under the 
Arctic circle, the cows, sheep and goats are 



40 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

all small in proportion. In summer the rein- 
deer feed upon grass, and give excellent 
milk ; in winter they feed upon moss, .which 
they scratch up under great depths of snow 
with marvellous instinct. 



To the Volga, 41 



III. 



THE REINDEER. DRESS AND HABITS OF THE 
NATIVES. PEASANT LIFE IN THE VALLEYS. 

WHEN winter draws near great numbers 
of reindeer are killed and the flesh is 
dried and smoked to provide when the ground 
is covered with snow, and but few birds, like 
ptarmigan, partridges and caper-cailzie, are 
met with ; the flesh is very nutritious, and 
after a course of grass-feeding it is surprising 
how soon the reindeer become fat and plump. 
The skin makes their dresses and boots, the 
sinews their thread and fishing-lines, and the 
horns their spoons and domestic utensils ; 
their utensils are not all horn ; the Laps have 
always some kettles of copper and iron, and 
sometimes also bowls of wood and tin ; and 
among the rich they are even of silver. 

The wandering Laps usually live in rude 
huts, formed of trees or poles, in the shape 
of a cone, with an opening in the center to 
allow the smoke to escape, and a few mats 



42 Fro7?i the Land of the Midnight Sun 

are spread on the floor. Each side of the 
fire-place is divided into three chambers, 
separated by mats or skins, the innermost 
for husband and wife, the next for the chil- 
dren, and the outer for servants. When the 
family is too poor to have servants they often 
find room for some reindeer. 

The winter dwellings are much more sub- 
stantial, and are roofed with beams, on which 
are hung the dried cakes of reindeer flesh, 
while, outside, the huts are covered with 
bushes and earth. The door is very low and 
small, and can only be entered by crawling 
on the hands and knees. The windows are 
made from the intestines of seals, prepared 
and sewed together. The furniture is very 
primitive. Such as it is, it is made by the 
men, who also do the cooking, and make the 
boats and sleighs, skiddor^ or snow shoes, and 
the bows and arrows. Sometimes these win- 
ter-huts are made large enough to contain a 
dozen families, the separation being effected 
by curtains of skins. 

The Lap, as he appears in his own country, 
is very different from many of the pictures so 
familiar to us. His usual dress consists of 
dirty old reindeer pelts and a filthy peaked 
cap. In winter, all the dress is made of rein- 



To the Volga. 43 



deer skins, except the cap, which is made of 
cloth, and shaped like a sugar-loaf. 

The dress of the men and women is much 
alike. They wear their hair long and 
straight, falling down the sides of the head 
and back ; and as beards and whiskers are 
never seen, it is usual to distinguish between 
men and women by the boots. The men 
wear long and the women short ones. The 
costume is in the " Bloomer " style, and con- 
sists of a short coat of skin made with the 
hair outside. This is fastened around the 
waist with a belt and buckle, and a pair of 
tight-fitting breeches, made of tanned rein- 
deer leather, are fastened round the ankle. 
The boots, of corresponding material, are 
peaked and turned up at the toes. These are 
drawn over the breeches and fastened at the 
top with a long piece of list, which keeps out 
the snow and makes them nearly water-tight. 

Even in the depths of winter the Laps have 
their necks always bare. They wear no linen 
or stockings, and stuff the boots, which are 
very roomy, with soft hay, made from the 
cypress-grass. Their gloves are like mittens, 
and often ornamented with great taste. In 
summer, the same leather breeches are worn, 
but the coat is made of coarse cloth. The 



44 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

women carry a tobacco pouch, pipe, scissors, 
and a spoon to drink spirits from, hanging 
from the waist. The richer Laps often orna- 
ment these articles wit'h silver braid. 

In the winter the Laps use snow-shoes, or 
skiddor, and they always carry a spear, with a 
four-edged spike, about a foot in length, 
mounted on an aspen shaft, six feet long. 
Their equipment for the winter is completed 
with an old skin knap-sack for provisions, a 
rough case-knife in the belt, and a little iron 
pipe for their delectation in smoking, and 
sometimes a gun like a pea-rifle. 

The sleighs are like small boats cut in half, 
and only hold one person, and are so cranky 
that the driver is obliged to use a short pole 
to keep the sleigh steady ; so that between 
driving the reindeer, which are fastened to 
the sleigh, and keeping his balance with the 
short pole, he has enough to do. If the 
sleigh turns over, which it sometimes does, 
the occupant can not fall out, as he is too 
tightly packed in with skins ; but he has an 
awkward time of it, and gets sadly bumped 
in the snow if the reindeer dash off at full 
speed, as they have a habit of doing. 

The Laps all live by fishing and hunting. 
Their game is elk, bear, foxes, wolves, ermine 



To the Volga. 45 



and squirrel. The Russian Laps are chiefly 
fishers. They are quiet, hospitable, honest 
and inoffensive, and decidedly favorable 
specimens of a semi-civilized race, still retain- 
ing their patriarchal traditions. The father 
is supreme in the family, and can apportion 
his property at death, and disinherit any of 
his children, should he see fit. If a son wishes 
to leave the house and set up for himself, he 
can take nothing with him but his wife's 
dowry. Drunkenness is their great failing. 

Our ride on the steamer (Damskibe) " Ori- 
on " has been three weeks. We have had 'an 
opportunity to see the whole coast of Nor- 
way, with its hundreds of fjords and lakes 
and an infinity of islands, and its numerous 
towns and cities, all supported by its immense 
fisheries. At one place, which we passed on 
our return, they told us that they had that 
day a great success in a " catch " of two hun- 
dred thousand herring. What we saw were 
being packed, on a number of islands, by 
men, women and children, and our steamer 
was taking them away from every town to 
Bergen, whence they are shipped to Spain 
and other countries. At every stopping 
place the steamer does not go up to the 
wharf, but anchors some distance off, and the 



46 From the Land of the Mid7iight Sun 

numerous boats come out to bring passengers 
and take others ashore. Sometimes as many 
as twenty or thirty boats push around the 
steamer to get the first opportunity to dis- 
charge their loads. Oftentimes quite a skir- 
mish ensues between them. 

While this is going on, other boat loads of 
men and women are in the distance, waving 
their handkerchiefs to friends leaving on the 
steamers, making an exciting scene, and is an 
oasis to the passengers who have such long 
distances to travel, with nothing to relieve 
the monotony, save the splendid scenery, 
with a surprise at every turn. 

A London gentleman and myself concluded 
that we would leave the steamer at Thrond- 
hjem, and take a ride by cariole through the 
country for about one hundred and fifty 
miles, and intercept the steamer at Namsos. 
We started a day ahead of her leaving 
Throndhjem, and took the cars for sixteen 
miles, to a station with the euphonious name 
of '' Hell." We crossed a river which might 
be the '' Styx," but there was no " old ferry- 
man there to ferry us over the river Styx," and 
they have a bridge now. We passed safely, 
and a boy pointed out to us the first cariole 
station, or skyds,2,'s> it is called in Norwegian. 



To the Volga. 47 



Almost every town in Norway is reached 
by steamboats, and there are no stages or 
conveyances through the country. The 
government has, therefore, created a system 
of '^ posting," as they call it, by cariole (at a 
cost of about six to eight cents per mile), 
which is a kind of gig, like a race-horse 
vehicle, only it is ugly and clumsy in appear- 
ance. It has two long poles and a prow- 
shaped body, and a seat like a half bowl, just 
large enough for one person to sit on. The 
feet must rest on a cross-piece, directly in the 
rear of the horse. Behind is a board, on the 
ends of the poles, to strap the luggage onto, 
while the "gut," (boy) or " pige," (girl) takes 
a seat, with legs dangling, and keeps one 
company till the next station, when they take 
back the cariole. 

There are no springs to this primitive 
conveyance, and one can imagine the jolting 
when a stone or a hole obstructs the progress. 
The harness is equally primitive ; no blinders, 
with rope lines and a small piece of board 
each side for the iron saddle-tree to rest on. 
The horse draws by the poles, with a kind of 
wooden fastening attached to the harness. 
You are yourself expected to drive. 

The roads are made by the government, 



48 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

and the whole distance of one hundred and 
fifty miles was as smooth as the roadway in 
any well-kept park. The stations are from 
five to eight miles apart, and each is a farm- 
house, where they are obliged to have two or 
three horses, according to the amount of 
travel, always in readiness. These are the 
farm horses, and in one instance were taken 
from the mowing machine for our use. The 
farmer is liable to a fine if he keeps one wait- 
ing tnore than fifteen to thirty minutes, and 
it' is often a great detriment to his business. 

At the second station we drove up to no 
one came to the door (so it was at every 
station), and we had to find our way into the 
room where the traveler is expected to 
register his name in the "sydsbog." or day- 
book, and the number of horses he wants, 
and any complaints he has to make in regard 
to his treatment, delay, etc. In the front of 
the book are found the laws, passed by the 
Parliament, imposing the fines, etc., for not 
complying with the law and fixing the duty, 
etc. An inspector comes along at stated times 
and makes an examination, and if anything is 
wrong the law is very arbitrary. 

We waited at one station an hour for our 
horses to come ; they were off in the field, 



To the Volga. 49 

some distance, at work : if the farmers have 
not the horses at home they are obhged to 
procure them from the neighboring farmers ; 
we thought with such delay as this our 
steamer would not wait for us, and with over 
one hundred miles to drive, the prospect of 
meeting our friends was not very encourag- 
ing ; we started, however, with very good 
speed, as the ponies were fresh, we soon came 
to a gate across the road and a boy jumped 
off quickly, and opened it, and, although we 
started the horse as soon as possible the boy 
jumped on and we went on at a John Gilpen 
speed, though every few miles was another 
gate to open. 

We learned that each landholder has a gate 
across the road at the entrance and exit to 
his premises which gives the " skydsgut " 
plenty to do in opening and closing them. 

During the entire one hundred and fifty 
miles we did not meet ten carioles or vehi- 
cles ; we saw scarcely any one on the road or 
about the farm-houses, and only saw men 
and women in the hay-fields cutting the 
grass and making the hay by putting it on 
poles to dry. 

There were large farm-houses with several 
barns, the former painted white or yellow. 



5© From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

the latter red, in every direction overlooking 
the beautiful valleys, the farmers always 
choosing an elevated and commanding posi- 
tion ; the buildings are made of logs and 
covered v^ith boards, two stories in height, 
and stretching out at great length ; there is 
generally the living-house in front for the 
family, on one side the servants ** or tenants," 
on the other side the barn, and on the third 
side the store-house for butter and milk, all 
of which from a hollow square ; there are no 
cellars under the houses. 

The dwellings are plainly furnished — no 
carpets, but the floors are covered with sprigs 
of juniper, which emit a pleasant odor and 
everything is clean and neat. In one house 
was a sewing-machine and a woman spinning 
wool into yarn, and the farmer at work with 
his mowing machine out doors, the only one 
we saw the whole distance. Around the 
rooms are generally some very common wood 
engravings of Christ, Luther, the Prodigal 
Son in his different stages ; Norway's great 
poet, Bjornsterne-Bjorson, and some of the 
radical leaders. 

The peasants are all radical and are preju- 
diced against kings and an aristocracy, and in 
favor of a republican form of government. 



To the Volga. 51 



They have a good education, and are a plain, 
frugal, industrious people, kind and uncon- 
ventional, sit down to table with their ser- 
vants, and each one is expected to help him- 
self without ceremony. 

We picked up a little Norwegian language, 
which seemed to help us much, as they have 
a horror about being ordered to do anything, 
and at the changes when I wanted anything 
I would say ''Vaer saa gud strax," (be so 
good at once as to do so and so) , and they 
would run off at once, and we had no more 
delays in changing horses. 

At the third station I had a " pige " (girl) 
for my " skyds," and she tried to be very so- 
cial, but as I could not understand a word 
she said, except as she would say " America " 
and point to different farm-houses, I judged 
that from the houses some or all of their 
inmates had emigrated to America ; she said 
in broken English, ^^ I would like to go." 
When I told them I was from America, they 
would brighten up and say " I have a broder 
(brother) and a soster (sister) in America," 
and asked me, " Do you know my broder in 
San Francisco ? Do you know my soster in 
Mobile?" Having no idea of our country of 
such magnificent distances. 



52 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

The large emigration from Norway and 
Sweden, which amounted to one thousand 
per week last year, is alarming the govern- 
ment, and they are doing all they can to pre- 
vent it, our courier says '^ that our govern- 
ment won't long hold together, on account 
of the southern, northern and western inter- 
ests being antagonistic ; and warns the young 
men if they go to America they will prob- 
ably get into a war. Such warnings don't 
have any effect, as the news comes from those 
who have gone to America of their success. 
We met quite a number who were now on a 
visit to this country ; they were mostly from 
Minnesota. They like the climate of the 
north-west — it is more like their own. 

The country through which we passed on 
our long drive of one hundred and fifty 
miles, was well cultivated. They raise rye, 
barley, oats and potatoes ; but toward the 
north end, for fifty miles, nothing but white 
birch and Norway spruce trees and hazel 
bushes were seen. All along the road were 
beautiful flowers, heath, cornel, loosestrife 
golden rod, queen of the meadow, bluebell, 
stone-crops (several varieties), orchids, flower- 
ing sedge, white daisy, buttercups, several 
species of pyzola, creeping vetch and many 



To the Volga. 53 



other common flowers and plants. One of 
the most beautiful is a long creeping plant, 
with small, nearly round opposite leaves, and 
two tiny, pinkish flowers hanging together 
from an upright stalk ; it is called LinncEa 
borealis^ and is peculiar to Norway and 
Sweden. The name has been adopted as the 
emblem of the great Linnaeus, the world- 
renowned Swedish botanist. Its low, trailing 
habit and late bloom are considered typical 
of Linneeus' humble origin and late fame. 
We found all these plants, and many more, 
on our way to North Cape Mountain. It 
would seem as if the season was too short 
for plants to bloom in latitude seventy-one 
minutes, ten degrees north, but the sun 
shining for nearly three months brings vege- 
tation forward most rapidly. 

The first day we had ridden seventy miles 
in our unsocial carioles over hill and dale, 
through forests of pine, besides lakes and 
fjords, with such diversified scenery that we 
had forgotten how tired we were, and then 
the sun did not go down until ten-thirty, but 
at eleven o'clock we were glad to stop for the 
night, and take the remainder of our journey 
the next day. 

We reached Namsos in time to go aboard 



54 From the Laud of the Midnight Sun 

of our steamer, after waiting two or three 
hours for it to come in. These were " red- 
letter " days for us. We liad not had much 
to eat but milk and dry wafer-like bread, 
made of rye and oatmeal, in large, round 
tliin cakes, as much as a foot in circum- 
ference, and piled up in the " starbur " (store- 
house) five or six feet high, and, when it is to 
be eaten, it can be broken into all kinds of 
shapes, as it is so brittle. This is the only 
kind of bread they have, and but little can be 
eaten at once. 

Everywhere, on the steamer or in the 
towns, the Norwegians are ready to do one a 
favor, or answer questions when they can 
speak English, as most of the officers on the 
steamboats can, and at the hotels ; and the 
Government officials, whom one meets, will 
point out this mountain, that glacier, or some 
beautiful view, and repeat some legend con- 
nected with the spot. One gentleman from 
Christiana, w^ho traveled with us nearly the 
whole distance, was so exceedingly kind and 
intelligent that he won all our hearts. He 
expected to meet us on our return, but was 
disappointed, and sent us by telegraph the 
following message : 

** Nordland, over th}^ silent waters, through 



To the Volga. 55 



thy ever-lighted air, thou unfoldest for the 
traveler's wondering sight thy magic, lofty 
panorama, pointing to heaven ; there springs 
forth the pure the root on earth, the crown 
in heaven. May we meet there. God bless 
you all, and may He carry you safe and saved 
to your distant homes. 

" Yours truly, C. Nielsen." 

This shows the kindess of the people. At 
Tromso a gentleman went a long distance 
out of his way to show me the post-office. 
One of the girls on the cariole, at the end of 
the route, when I gave her a small sum of 
money, as is customary to the one who ac- 
companies you, shook hands with me several 
times ; such is the custom when they receive 
a gift. 

One would judge that most of the boys 
are named Olaf or Oscar, and they seem to 
worship Saint Olaf. On our cariole ride 
through the country, we found the boy had 
directed us out of our way about six miles to 
Stiktesad. The view was most beautiful, and 
all at once the boy pointed to a monument 
and stopped the horse. There was a well- 
trod path to an ornamented fence surround- 
ing a monument erected to the memory of 
Saint Olaf, who fell in the famous battle in 



1 



56 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

the annals of Norway, July 29th, 1030. There, 
is also a beautiful church erected to his 
memory near the spot where he was killed, 
and everybody visiting the neighborhood 
goes to this monument ; many Norwegians 
make a pilgrimage to it, so the boy took it 
for granted that we also wanted to go there. 
We did not care anything for Saint Olaf, and 
we did not like to be taken out of our way 
six miles at that time of night, when we had 
twenty-five miles farther to go. 

Our journey by steamer, with the small 
state-rooms, and many other inconveniences, 
would have been tedious enough but for the 
magnificent scenery, the delightful weather, 
the winds, the play of the light and shade, 
the purity of the atmosphere — all quite un- 
like the natural features that we have any- 
where seen either in Europe or America. The 
waters seem to be full of fish — whales, cod, 
herring, salmon, and many others, which are 
the source of immense revenue to Norway. 
The long line of warehouses at the landings 
in every place are to store fish, and all over 
the rocks, in many places, they are packing 
or drying fish ; and long lines of girls can be 
seen unloading codfish from the vessels, pass- 
ing the fish from one to the other, others 



To the Volga. 57 



spreading them out on the rocks to dry, and 
others piling them up in round piles, over 
which are placed dome-shaped coverings 
when the weather is wet. 

There seems to be an infinity of birds. 
Swan, geese, pelicans, grebe ducks, auk ducks, 
gulls, etc. The eider duck is a great curiosity. 
We brought away an eider down quilt, which 
is quite curious to our friends, as it is made 
of the skins of the male eider duck. 

Our tour through Norway was a great suc- 
cess. There was so much that was grand, 
picturesque, new to us and exciting. It cul- 
minated in our journey, by cariole, through 
the far-famed valleys of the Romsdal and 
Gudbrandsdal, over two hundred miles. The 
cariole I have already described as peculiar to 
Norway. 



58 Fro7n the Land of the Midnight Sun 



IV. 



MOLDE. A NATIVE WEDDING. THE BEAUTIES 
OF NATURE. CHURCH AT LISTAD. 

WE Started from Throndhjem by steamer 
to Molde, one of the most beautiful 
towns in Norway. Our attention was con- 
tinually attracted by the most beautiful roses 
and rare flowers in every yard, and in the 
windows of all the dwellings, both of the rich 
and the poor. The valley is so sheltered by 
hills and mountains that vegetation is unusu- 
ally luxurious, and such roses and honey- 
suckles running over the houses in the middle 
of August we have never seen. 

There was a grand wedding in the church 
the day we were there. The daughter of the 
sheriff was married, and all the flags were fly- 
ing from the vessels, and from almost every 
house, and from the villas on the mountain 
sides, the young ladies were out on the streets 
in their gayest attire. Roses and flowers 
were taken to the church in great profusion, 



To the Volga. 59 



and a more beautiful scene we have never 
witnessed. 

Everywhere in Scandinavia we notice that 
the fine dwellings and public buildings have 
a flagstaff, and on all public occasions the 
people run up the union-jack and the flag of 
their nation, which gives a gay appearance ; 
and to this is added the display of flags in 
the harbor, where each vessel runs up the 
colors of it nationality. 

The views from the mountains are the most 
picturesque in Norway. The Romsdalhorn, 
and the long range of peculiar shaped moun- 
tains covered with snow, the lakes and fjords, 
with the Atlantic ocean stretching out to the 
west, make a charming picture. This place 
has become so attractive, by reason of its 
scenery, fishing and hunting, that a large 
hotel is to be erected here the coming season, 
to accommodate the numerous tourists. 

We leave this place by steamer on the 
Romsdal fjord, winding our way out into the 
open sea until we enter the fjord. The ride 
the entire distance is most enchanting, with 
the high mountains ranging from five to six 
thousand feet, covered with • snow and 
glaciers, and on the side of the fjord, nestling 
in among the hills, the beautiful white and 



6o From the Land of the Midtiight Sun 

red farm-houses and out-buildings, and an oc- 
casional kirke (church) on an eminence, the 
green hillsides and valleys, quite in contrast 
with the bare rocks along the Norwegian 
coast, that we have been looking at in our 
journey to the North Cape. 

We arrive at Veblungsnaes, at the head of 
the fjord, amidst a heavy rainstorm, and find 
our carioles in waiting, and, as they are not 
covered, we get wet through on our ride to 
Aak, the first station, where we are glad to stay 
overnight, and dry our clothing by the huge 
kitchen fireplace. After supper at this old 
unique hotel, we all go out to get a view of 
the Romsdalhorn, usually known as the 
Horn, which is over five thousand feet high, 
with a horn-shaped rock running up into the 
air over eight hundred feet from the top of 
the mountain. In every direction are large 
mountains, over six thousand feet high, and 
covered with snow. All at once the sun 
comes out, and throws its light over the dis- 
tant heights and on the green hillsides, 
various shades of green, gold and silver, with 
a rainbow spanning the whole, enchants us, 
and we all stand in admiration of this never- 
to-be-forgotten sunset at the Aak Hotel 
under the mountains. 



To the Volga. 6i 



Some of the ladies of our party are sketch- 
ing the scene, but it is impossible to put in 
the continual beautiful lights and shades 
which we have noticed are peculiar to Nor- 
way. The young landlord at our hotel keeps 
us awake late telling of his numerous ex- 
periences with Englishmen, while with them 
as guide on their hunting and fishing excur- 
sions. He is a good story-teller, and his 
peculiar voice and broken English, and ex- 
citing manner, short, stubby appearance, 
with his long pipe in his mouth, are laugh- 
able enough. 

We are up early in the morning for our 
three or four days' ride by cariole through 
the most interesting part of Norway — along 
the Rauma and Lagen Valleys, known as the 
Romsdal and Gudbransdal. The morning 
was a delightful one, the sun clear, and the 
air cool and bracing after the rain of the 
night before. We soon rode along under the 
lofty Romsdalhorn, extending perpendicu- 
larly on one side of us, and the rapid Rausna, 
full of cataracts and waterfalls, on the other. 
The ride that day, and the novel, picturesque 
scenes during a walk of eight or ten miles, 
will not soon be effaced from our memory. 

Some one calls this the valley of one thou- 



62 From the Land of the Midnight Sim 

sand waterfalls ; some of them drop over 
precipices more than two thousand feet high. 
The walls of the gulley below have been 
worn into deep caldrons by the action of the 
water, which nearly disappears in spray 
before it reaches the bottom, where its roar 
is loudly reverberated. The whole drive is 
one continued succession of surprises, with 
lofty mountains and small houses along the 
valley, white birches and alders by the road 
side, and luxuriant pastures on the slopes of 
the hills. 

Some of our party seemed to think this 
valley equal to the Yosemite in California, 
but to me it does not appear so grand and 
imposing, and not so picturesque as some 
parts of Switzerland ; but it is peculiar to 
itself, and well pays one fond of such scenery 
to visit it. 

We leave this valley, after a journey of 
forty or fifty miles, and come to the Gud- 
bransdal Valley, which is tame in compari- 
son, but the ride gives us an opportunity to 
see the peasantry and their farms, and pecu- 
liar dress and mode of living. These cariole 
rides are not recommended for their speed, 
as one is likely to meet with many draw- 
backs from want of horses and the dilatory 



To the Volga. dT, 



manner of the keepers at the stations, where 
we were detained sometimes for two or three 
hours. Only four or five horses are available 
at each station, and if some one happens to 
be in advance of you, you are obliged to wait 
until the horses come back from the station 
beyond, and then they have to be rested and 
fed. Thus, instead of two days, as promised, 
we were three and one-half days from Aak to 
Lillehammer, and experienced many ludi- 
crous scenes. Our meals were usually good, 
as trout is abundant, and we had it at almost 
every meal ; the bread of rye and oats was 
thin as a wafer, hard and brittle. 

At Domars we stayed several hours ; it is 
on a high hill, and the air is fresh and in- 
vigorating ; this point is at the junction of 
the Gudbrandsdal, Dorufjeld and Throndh- 
jem routes. Here we met three American 
young ladies traveling alone, or rather with 
only a courier ; we were surprised at their 
independence for ladies so young ; they had 
been to the North Cape, and were going to 
spend the summer in Norway. In conversa- 
tion, we found the youngest not over four- 
teen or fifteen years of age ; we were in- 
terested in seeing them pack themselves 
away in their carioles, and drive off one 



64 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

after the other over the route we had just 
traveled. 

Our experience at the next station was not 
an agreeable one, although the station mas- 
ter claimed his descent from the first King of 
Norway in 1030, " Harold Haanfagre," and 
showed us several crowns, one of the old 
King's and another a bride's silver crown, and 
a number of old curiosities ; this man was so 
displeased because one of our English bloods 
came into the station on a canter, that he 
would not allow us to have the horses for an 
hour, and then only by coaxing and a prom- 
ise from the young man that he should go 
behind us. 

It is delightful to notice how kind all the 
Norwegians are to their horses ; every little 
while the boy or girl who attends us will stop 
them and step around to stroke their faces 
and look over them to see if they are sweat- 
ing. Going up hill they also stop them and 
let them get wind — this young Englishman 
caused us a great deal of trouble on account 
of his fast driving, as the word was passed 
along by the (skydot gut) boy to the other 
stations to look out for him. 

This is a historic valley and our intelligent 
driver (Olaf Ees), who was valuable to us as 



To the Volga. 65 



a courier, although he could speak hardly 
a word of English, was so bright that he 
managed to learn a good many words of us 
and we of him — it is easy to do this, as there 
are many words in Norwegian and English 
that are similar — pointed out to us many his- 
torical spots ; one was a mountain precipice 
where three hundred Norwegian peasants 
hurled down huge stones upon nine hundred 
Scotch troops, in 1612, and killed nearly every 
one of them, including Colonel Sinclair, the 
commander. 

The troops had just landed and were pil- 
laging and robbing the peasants, and endeav- 
oring to force their way through Norway to 
join the Swedes ; a tablet in the rock com- 
memorates the deed as follows : " Erindring 
om Bondernes Tappered." A little further on 
is a stone to show where Colonel Sinclair was 
buried. 

In the neighborhood we were shown the 
(gaard steig) farm-house, where the leader of 
the peasants who annihilated the Scottish 
invaders lived ; near here is also the seat of 
Dale Gudbrand, the powerful heathen oppo- 
nent of Saint Olaf, and the scene of heathen 
sacrificial rites. 

On Sunday we attended church (kirke) at 



66 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

Listad ; the church is an old octagon, built in 
1720, it is in a quaint style of architecture, 
with a tower in the centre, which is painted 
black ; inside were galleries all around the 
building. When I entered I heard a voice 
reading or praying, and looked around to see 
where it came from, and for some time sup- 
posed it was some one hid from view, but, 
finally looking up, saw the priest perched 
upon a high pulpit far above the audience. 
He looked as if he might be the old reformer 
Luther himself, with his long gown and 
Elizabethian collar and ruffle around his 
neck. 

The peasants are very plainly dressed, the 
Women wearing white handkerchiefs around 
their necks and on their head ; barely one 
had on a bonnet, and they looked queer 
enough, as they would bow their heads and 
then raise them again, all over the church. 
Most all of the attendants were women. A 
number brought their babes to have them 
baptized. The priests are highly educated, 
and much venerated by the peasants, who 
speak lovingly of their self-sacrificing devo- 
tion to them during the long and cold winter 
nights, going from place to place over the 
mountains to minister to their necessities. 



To the Volga. 67 



The priests have small salaries, but con- 
nected with each church is a (proestgaad) 
parsonage, with a farm attached, which is 
cultivated under the direction of the priest. 
The building is usually an imposing farm- 
house and out-*buildings, the former painted 
white, the latter red. The young people at 
the station were preparing for a grand tea 
party, for a Sunday night entertainment, 
which they enjoyed hugely. 

These valleys are spoken of as highly cul- 
tivated, but to us the farms looked small, and 
many of the houses inferior, and hardly any 
cattle to be seen. The driver thought that 
the cattle were off to the saeters, a pasture 
place on the mountains, where the stock is 
sent for the summer, and cared for by the 
girls of the farm, generally living in little 
huts, and returned to the farms when the 
snow comes in the fall. 

We passed continually waterfalls, and to- 
day we had too many falls over our heads, or, 
rather, on our heads, and had no protection 
but our waterproof garments, which, how- 
ever, proved equal to the situation. We 
stopped to look at the Hunnerfos, a splendid 
fall, spreading out over a great surface, with 
numerous rapids. 



68 From the Laiid of the Midnight Sun 

We were glad to reach Lillihammer, the 
end of our cariole journey of three and one- 
half days, tired and wet enough, and were 
glad to continue our journey by steamer, on 
the beautiful Lake Mjoesen, the longest in 
Norway, being sixty-three fniles in length. 
On each side are beautiful farm-houses and 
green hillsides, and the scenery quite in con- 
trast with what we have been witnessing for 
the past three or four weeks. At the end of 
the lake we take railroad for the beautiful 
city of Christiana, the capital of Norway, 
where we spend a few days most agreeably, 
visiting the various places of interest, among 
them the ''exposition" for Scandinavia, 
which is now in progress. Here we do not 
find much of interest, only what is peculiar 
to the northern countries. Some of the paint- 
ings in the art gallery are quite creditable, 
especially those of some of the beautiful 
fjords and fishing towns we had visited. We 
were glad to see that some of the finest were 
by Mr. Normann, a Norvv^egian artist, with 
whom we had traveled to the North Cape. 
He was continually taking sketches, and it 
seems to me, no country in the world abounds 
in such grand scenery for the artist's pencil. 

The American consul, to whom^ I was 



To the Volga. 69 



favored with a letter of introduction, was very 
attentive to us, and accompanied us through 
Oscar Hall, and pointed out to us the beauti- 
ful scenery around Christiana, and invited us 
to his lovely villa, a short distance from the 
city, where he has a farm of one hundred and 
fifty acres adjoining. The buildings are ex- 
tensive, and of an old style of Norwegian 
architecture, of which I was anxious to ob- 
tain a photograph, they were so quaint. The 
grounds are laid out in the old English style 
of parks and lakes. The consul's wife is an 
American lady. He is a Norwegian, and I 
wish all our consuls were so worthy of their 
position. He rendered us much valuable ser- 
vice in obtaining information for shipping 
goods to America, and about the laws and 
customs of the country. 

Norway is greatly excited, politically, now, 
and a great impeachment trial is going on in 
Christiana, in the Parliament buildings, be- 
fore the highest court. It seems the King, 
Oscar II., vetoed some bill, passed by the 
Parliament, and the ministry and counsellors 
confirmed it, and the country became so 
aroused about their rights being interfered 
with, that they have undertaken to impeach 
them. We were in the court, but could not 



70 Frotn the Land of the Midnight Stcn 

understand a word. The names of the eleven 
were handed to us, as printed and lying on 
the desks of the impeaching court. 

The peasants of Norway are republicans, 
and are quite radical in their views, and are 
jealous of any infringement upon their rights. 
The inhabitants of the cities are, on the other 
hand, conservative. We could not quite under- 
stand the controversy, but by the excited dis- 
cussions on the steamboats, and the pam- 
phlets scattered over the country, we judged 
the excitement to be at fever heat. 

One of the leading papers here published 
a review of Colonel Robert Ingersoll's lec- 
tures on the Bible, and in the review printed 
long extracts from his works, and for this the 
paper has been summoned before the court of 
Norway for ''blasphemy," and this is also 
creating a great deal of discussion, some of 
the leading papers taking the ground that it 
is interfering with the freedom of the press, 
others that it is a dangerous, unlawful docu- 
ment to print. 



To the Volga. 71 



V. 



THE KING AND HIS REALM. DESPOTISM TO- 
WARD SENTIMENT. NORWAY AND SWEDEN 
CONTRASTED. 

OSCAR II. is King over Norway and Swe- 
den, and yet the two nations do not seem 
to have anything else in cornmon ; they are 
only united for defense. Their language, 
habits and laws are distinct. Even in passing 
from Norway to Sweden we had to undergo 
an examination of our baggage, showing that 
duties are charged on certain articles passing 
from one country to the other. The King 
lives most of the time in Stockholm, and the 
people of Norway are jealous of it. He 
comes to Christiana, according to law, when 
Parliament convenes in September, but only 
remains as long as he is obliged to, in order 
to carry out the law. The King is much 
liked by the aristocracy, and seems really to 
be a man of ability and culture. The Ameri- 
can Consul informed us that a literary asso- 
ciation offered a premium for the best Scan- 



72 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

dinavian poem. The committee who were to 
decide were not to know the authors of the 
different poems, and when they selected the 
poem they considered the best, they found 
the author was King Oscar II., which much 
pleased his admirers and the aristocracy. 

When I asked the peasants, ^' Why do you 
not have a republic in Norway, you are largely 
in the majority ?" they replied, '* We would 
not be allowed to be a republic, other nations 
would interfere." The situation in Norway 
is becoming daily more serious ; the impeach- 
ment trial of the ministers, just concluded, 
has had the effect of irritating the King. The 
late premier, whom the Supreme Court of 
the kingdom sentenced to loss of office and a 
heavy fine, is rewarded with the Serafimer 
Cross, the highest distinction for civic merit ; 
and another minister, who was also fined and 
censured by the same tribunal, has been ap- 
pointed chief of a new cabinet. All the 
other lately appointed ministers are extreme 
conservatives. 

Every editor, whether in Norway or 
Sweden, who has the courage to criticize the 
King's conduct with any degree of spirit, is 
unceremoniously thrown into jail, preliminary 
to trial for offending his Majesty. With the 



To the Volga. 73 

utmost nonchalance this same Majesty, how- 
ever, writes a letter, or so-called dictamen, 
expressing his opinion of the Norwegian 
Parliament, and the highest tribunal of Nor- 
way, and it is superfluous to remark that his 
opinion is highly uncomplimentary ; but 
when Bjorstjerne Bjornson in turn expresses 
an equally uncomplimentary opinion of the 
dictamen, its royal author responds by trying 
the editor who has published Bjornson's let- 
ter for crimen laesae majestatis. Bjornson, who 
has been living in Paris during the last year, 
as soon as the intelligence reached him, took 
the first train for the North, and has now ar- 
rived in Norway, and declared his purpose 
to assume the responsibility for his own 
words. Probably he has been imprisoned, 
though no intelligence to that effect has yet 
reached us. Intense excitement is reigning 
throughout the country, and everybody asks 
his neighbor, with bated breath, " What will 
happen next?" That Bjornson will be tried 
is inevitable, and the chances are that in that 
trial the Government will be sowing the crop 
of dragon-teeth which sooner or later will 
sprout forth in armed men. 

Some of the most valuable farms in Nor- 
way would be spurned as a gift by American 



74 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

husbandmen, who are seldom content with 
places of sudden undulation, or indeed, with 
anything but pieces of rich prairie or bottom 
land. But the Norwegians are industrious 
and thrifty grangers, have comfortable barns 
and fine cattle, and generations of families 
succeed each other in possessing and working 
their mountain farmsteads. Their houses are 
substantially constructed of wood, and inside 
there is an air of comfort and cleanliness. 
But what of the farm ? ** Look about you," 
says Chambers' Journal, " mountains hem us 
in on all sides ; there is no room for fields as 
we know them at home ; but grass grows 
luxuriantly among the rocks, with occasion- 
ally a patch as large as an ordinary villa gar- 
den ; there the farmer cuts a portion of his 
hay crop on which his horses and cattle are 
mainly dependent during the eight winter 
months. But his hay field is yet wider 
spread. Glance upwards some fifteen hun- 
dred feet there, where an opening occurs in 
the dwarf birch, and you will observe the 
diminished form of a man busy at work. 
That is the farmer, a thorough mountaineer, 
cutting the grass which grows on yonder 
narrow ledge of rock. He has been up since 
early morn, and will probably not descend 



To the Volga. 75 



till evening. Not a tuft of grass will be left 
ungathered ; not a foot of level ground on 
that steep and rugged mountain sifie but will 
be visited, and its small crop carefully re- 
moved by the industrious bergsman. If he 
has a wide stretch of field (hill pasture or 
moorland) in his boundary, the farmer erects 
wooden sheds, in which he stores his hay till 
winter, when, by an ingenious contrivance, he 
has the whole rapidly and easily conveyed to 
the valley. A familiar object in a Norwegian 
glen is the strong steel wire which stretches 
from the foot to the summit of the mountain. 
Down this wire the bundles of hay are ex- 
peditiously sent without labor, and then car- 
ried in sledges to the steadings. Without 
such a method many weary journeys would 
be necessary ere the hay required for a long 
winter could be brought down. It appears 
the Norwegian farmer borrowed the idea of 
his Jiay telegraph from his brother hillsmen 
of che Tyrol about eight years ago. The hay 
crop is the product of natural grass, no seed 
being sown nor any admixture of clover 
being used. 

Norway presents us with the grandest pic- 
ture of the effects of peasant proprietorship ; 
there the land has, from time immemorial, 



76 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

been the property of the laborer who tills it — 
it has never been poisoned by the foul curse 
of feudalism. The title deeds of these pea- 
sant holdings are in a dead language, and the 
names of the peasants are those of the dis- 
trict ; the results are marvellous. Land 
which no English or American farmer would 
or could cultivate under our agricultural sys- 
tem, even if receiving a liberal bounty per 
acre instead of paying rent, is there made to 
support whole families, and that by the same 
race as ourselves and in latitudes hundreds 
of miles further north, some of it even within 
the Arctic circle. 

Sailing along the coast of Norway the^ 
tourist passes here and there little oases, 
called "stations," where the steam omnibus 
halts to land and embark a passenger or two. 
If a careful observer, he may learn that in the 
midst of the rocky desolation there is a de- 
posit of rock fragments and gravel left by an 
ancient glacier in a hollow formerly filled 
by the ice. This is cultivated, is a dairy farm 
and fishing station, farmers and fishers being 
all freeholders and capitalists, no such class 
as laborers without property existing there. 

One of the grandest of the Norwegian fjords 
is the Geiranger ; it is walled by perpendicu- 



To the Volga. 77 



lar precipices from one thousand to three 
thousand feet high. Sailing along the fjord, 
a boathouse is seen here and there at the foot 
of the dark wall. Looking skyward directly 
above it may be seen what appear to be toy 
houses on a gree.: patch ; closer observations 
reveals moving objects ; a field-glass shows 
that they are cattle, goats, and children, 
tethered to bowlders to prevent them from 
straying over the edge of the precipice. A 
family resides up there, cultivating this bit of 
ancient ground, backed by craggy mountain 
tops, with a foreground of precipice above 
the fjord. The only cummunication between 
these eagle-nest farmers and the outer world 
is by the boat below ; how the boat is reached, 
where is the staircase of ledges on the face of 
the precipice, is incomprehensible to the pass- 
ing tourist ; in most cases no indication of a 
track is visible. Nothing but absolute pro- 
prietorship by the cultivator could bring such 
land into cultivation — latitute sixty-two de- 
grees, altitude two thousand to three thous- 
and feet ; summer only three to four months 
long ; the ground covered with snow during 
six to eight months of every year — requires 
a race such as we found the Norwegians to 
be : intelligent, kind, frugal and industrious. 



78 Froi7i the Land of the Midnight Sun 

The five hundred thousand of them now in 
our own country, and more coming in every 
year, will be welcomed as the right kind of 
citizens to make good republicans, and the 
more that come the better. 

We had the good luck to witness a very in- 
teresting ceremonial — namely, a village wed- 
ding, when about fifty persons assembled, all 
in their holiday costume — the women in 
bright-colored petticoats and bodices, with 
beautiful white chemisettes. They were a 
very pleasant looking group — the men strong, 
well-knit fellows, but all fair-skinned, with 
fiaxen hair and kind blue eyes. 

The bride was a demure young woman, 
somewhat overweighted with necklaces and 
bracelets (which we understood to be heir- 
looms), but more especially by an immense 
gilt crown running up in tall points to a 
height of about eight inches, and studded with 
many colored crystals. It was a most gorge- 
ous head-dress, and belongs to the village. 

Every village is supposed to have one, 
which is hired for the occasion by the parents 
of the bride. But, like the plain ribbon or 
snood of the Scottish highland maid, no Nor- 
wegian bride is entitled to wear this crown of 
honor unless her character is above suspicion •, 



To the Volga, 79 



and this, unhappily, is so very exceptional, 
that the hiring of the crown is now consid- 
ered almost invidious on the part of the few 
who may certainly claim it ; so the custom is 
dying out, and we esteemed ourselves fortu- 
nate in having witnessed a nuptial cermony in 
which this picturesque bridal decoration was 
worn. 

There was no architectural beauty in the 
very plain, barn-like church, which had no 
pretense at decoration. The Lutheran ser- 
vice, which, of course, was conducted in Nor- 
wegian, seemed to us like that of the Scotch 
Presbyterian church All the men sat on one 
side and the women on the other, according 
to the usual custom. The parson, in his 
black gown and white fluted collar, per- 
formed the simple service, in which a wed-^ 
ding ring shaped like a double heart did duty 
in place of our plain circlet. He then as- 
cended the pulpit and delivered a very long 
exhortation which, being beyond our com- 
prehension, was to us only suggestive of 
Longfellow's charming lines : — 

" Long was the good man's sermon, 
Yet it seemed not long to me 
For he spake of Ruth the beautiful, 
And still I thought of thee." 



8o From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

There was one feature in the ceremony 
which we noted with especial interest, therein 
recognizing a lingering trace of pre-Christian 
days. The pulpit stands in the centre of a 
large chancel, and, at a pause in the service, 
all the wedding party walked solemnly thrice 
around it, in sidewise procession — a pretty 
revival of old Norse paganism. 

Any one with an observing eye cannot but 
notice a great difference between Norway 
and Sweden, while visiting the two countiies, 
although under one king, Oscar II., Avho is a 
Swede. The relation between the two coun- 
tries does not seem to be cordial, and I 
should not be surprised if there should be, 
before many years, a permanent breach. The 
constitutions are quite different, that of Nor- 
way being more democratic in its character 
than that of the sister kingdom, and the peo- 
ple of the former seem more democratic, and 
do not worship the king, as many seem to do 
in Sweden. There have been, however, great 
changes in the Constitution of Sweden since 
i860, under Oscar I., who was exceedingly 
popular, and the Constitution of Sweden has 
been brought more into harmony with that 
of Norway, with its two Chambers, both now 
elective. 



To the Volga. 8i 



In visiting the half dozen splendid palaces, 
maintained by the two governments for the 
king, four in Sweden and two in Norway, 
one can not but wonder that intelligent peo- 
ple could be satisfied at the immense expense 
it involves to keep up royalty. With a popu- 
lation of only about five million (two million 
in Norway, and three million in Sweden) 
these great palaces are kept up just to sup- 
port the king's family. The cost of the 
palaces, and maintaining of the king's house- 
hold, no doubt is more than it costs to main- 
tain all the great benevolent and educational 
institutions and hospitals in any one State of 
the United States. 

I took note of what I saw in the palaces, 
and the beautiful grounds and hunting parks 
attached to them, but to go into the details 
of what I saw would be only a repetition of 
what has already been described in other 
countries. Gold and silver dining sets, the 
most expensive paintings and statuary, 
Sevres ware, and gobelin tapestry, and furni- 
ture of the most expensive nature, are not too 
good for each of the six palaces of the King 
of Sweden and Norway. 

In traveling through the two countries we 
did not see school-houses scattered along the 



82 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

country, as in the United States, and on in- 
quiry of our courier, I learn that the schools 
in the country are held in the farm-houses. 
Education in Sweden and Norway is compul- 
sory, all children being required to attend 
school who cannot satisfy the authorities that 
they are receiving sufficient education at 
home. 

In Sweden places of instruction are divided 
into three kinds, the folkskolor^ or " people's 
schools," answering to our public schools ; 
all mannaskolor^ " public schools," which are 
to be found in all the larger towns, and the 
universities. All of these are under the con- 
trol of the ecclesiastical (and educational) 
department, and partly under the bishops 
and clergy of the diocese to which they belong. 

The State churches are Lutheran. The re- 
ligious instruction is entirely under the 
management of the pastor. The minimum of 
subjects taught before a pupil can leave 
school and be confirmed, are reading, writing, 
arithmetic, church catechism, Bible history 
and singing. But the higher branches are 
also taught. Besides these, popular schools 
of a more advanced kind, caXl&d folkhogskolory 
designed to give a higher culture to the labor- 
ing classes, are being established in different 



To the Volga. 83 



parts of the country. To each of the higher 
schools a library is attached. In all schools 
botany is taught in the lower classes. The 
bishop of each diocese seems to have control 
of, or is supervisor, of the schools in the dio- 
cese, and he appoints an inspector for each 
school. 

Great importance is attached to gymnastic 
exercises throughout Sweden, both as a 
means of giving a healthy physique, and also 
as a remedy against certain kinds of bodily 
ailment. For such purposes the Gymnastika 
Centralinstiut was founded by Per Henzik 
Ling, the great inventor of Swedish gymnas- 
tics. This establishment is divided into three 
departments. One to train officers to super- 
intend gymnastics in the army and navy. A 
second to train teachers of gymnastics for the 
town and country schools, and a third for the 
study of gymnastics as a system of medical 
treatment. The system has been adopted 
with more or less success in Germany, Eng- 
land, and other countries. 

We visited the great university at Upsala, 
with its one thousand two hundred students, 
about forty or fifty miles from Stockholm. 
This is considered the historical and intel- 
lectual centre of the kingdom to which it 



84 From the Land of the Midnight Suft 

belongs. Ancientl)^ it also formed the strong- 
hold of Paganism, memorials of which 
abound in the tombs and monuments of the 
neighborhood. The town looked old, and 
does not have the appearance of life and 
thrift. The old cathedral is the first object 
that attracts attention. It was begun in the 
year 1260, and finished in 1435. ^^ is built 
upon the site of the old heathen temple, 
Upsala, an edifice spoken of in the early Saga 
legends to have been of enormous size and 
immense wealth. 

We were here more interested to see the 
place where the great Linnaeus was buried 
in the cathedral than to see the tombs of the 
Kings of Sweden. We were shown the place 
where Linnaeus lived ; we see the evidences 
of his genius in the great botanical institu- 
tion built here in connection with the college 
herbarium, fine floral collection and many 
rare plants, although in latitude of more than 
sixty degrees. There is a fine building in the 
gardens, with a good statue of Linnaeus in a 
sitting posture with a book, on which is the 
little flower called Linncea borealis, which 
has been adopted as the emblem of the great 
botanist. We saw this flower in the pine 
forests in the north of Norway, and picked a 



To the Volga. 85 



quantity of it to bring home with us. 
Linnaeus is called, by the Swedes " The 
King of Flowers." He was the first one to 
perfect anything like a systematic and 
scientific manner of classification of plants 
and animals. 

In the library we see the famous Codex 
Arge?ttus, a translation of the four gospels 
into Maeso Gothic by Bishop Uphilas, dating 
from the fourth century, written on one hun- 
d ed and eighty-eight leaves of parchment, 
ir gold and silver letters, on a reddish 
ground — this was captured in the thirty 
years' war. We are shown here the three 
great mounds, or burial places, from the 
bronze age. They are attributed to the 
heathen gods Odin, Thor and Frey, whence 
we have Onsday (Wednesday), Thorsday 
(Thursday), Freyday (Friday). These mounds 
look very much like the mounds seen in 
many of the Middle and Western States, and 
are interesting as suggesting the sources of 
our names for the days of the week. The 
highest mound, sixty-four feet, was cut 
through in 1864, to enable the Universal 
Ethnographical Congress, that met in Upsala, 
to examine the inside of it. Fragments of a 
skeleton and some orn£.ments were found. 



86 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

Hundreds of smaller mounds can be seen for 
miles around. 

Stockholm is one of the most beautiful 
cities in Europe, and has a population of one 
hundred and sevent3^-five thousand to two 
hundred thousand. The situation of it on 
islands, on a plain and on rocky hills, sur- 
rounded by water and numerous islands in 
almost every direction, makes it exceedingly 
picturesque, and it is well called the "Venice 
of the North." From the Belvidere and the 
top of the elevator one is astonished at the 
lovely panorama of the city, and its forest of 
trees and rocks which surround it ; Lake 
Malar, with the beautiful islands covered 
with verdure, the summer villas of the wealthy 
citizens, and the fifty steamers plying in every 
direction ; the Baltic at our feet, with its 
busy traffic, all presents a scene of unrivalled 
beauty and attractiveness. 

We are glad to have Sunday come, and to 
take a day of rest, for this sight-seeing keeps 
one busy with body and mind. We attended 
service at the cathedral, and at the Katharina 
Kyaka, founded in 1609, on the spot where 
the victims of the '* Stockholm Bloodbath," 
of 1389, had been interred, where a large num- 
ber of burghers had been cruelly murdered. 



To the Volga. 87 



We notice the priests in Sweden do not 
wear the Elizabethian collar as in Norway. 
The services seemed to us just like those of 
the Roman Catholic church ; the priest be- 
fore the altar in his scarlet and gold vest- 
ments, and the ringing of the little bells and 
turning his face to the altar, with his back to 
the audience, and many other things gave it 
the appearance of a Catholic rather than a 
Lutheran church. 

We expected to hear splendid music in the 
city of Jennie Lind and Christina Nillsson, 
who have so charmed us by their wonderful 
voices ; no one has ever seemed to me to 
equal Jennie Lind in the bird-like sweetness 
of her voice. But the music in the churches 
has slow, minor tones, and nothing especially 
to note in the voices in any of the churches 
which we attended. Near this church is the 
house where Swedenborg, the celebrated 
mathematician, philosopher and author of the 
New Jerusalem church doctrines, lived ; our 
guide informed us that there are none of his 
followers in Sweden, but that an Englishman 
(there are many of those who follow his relig- 
ious system in England) purchased the little 
summer house that was in the garden, and 
took it to England. 



88 Fro7n the Land of the Af id flight Sun 

All about the city, on the islands, where 
one goes by steamer, are gardens, and one 
hears most delightful music. On Sunday 
evening there were great crowds of people 
at King Park, in the center of the city, to 
hear the music and to promenade ; opposite 
our hotel near the palace, on the River Nord, 
which runs rapidly between Lake Malar and 
the Baltic, is a garden where every night is 
music and we found this a most attractive 
place. 

Our ride by steamer to Drottingholm Pal- 
ace on Lake Malar, a lake about eighty miles 
long, with over one thousand two hundred 
islands on which are many beautiful villas, 
the summer residences of the wealthy citizens 
of Stockholm, was an enchanting one. The 
palace was built in the sixteenth century and 
contains many sumptuously furnished apart- 
ments and paintings, and the grounds are 
laid out in the old French style with sculp- 
ture in bronze and marble. 

There seems to be something new to see in 
Stockholm every day, and our time there 
seemed altogether too short, and we put this 
city down as a place to visit again. The pic- 
ture gallery in the museum building contains 
many works of art by the old masters, but we 



To the Voka. 



were glad to turn our attention to those of 
the Swedish school which represent land- 
scape, fjord, lake and mountain scenery by 
Tidemand, whose paintings in Oscar Hall, 
in Christiana, around the dining-room near 
the ceiling and representing the " Seven Ages 
of Peasant Life," certainly indicate that he is 
one of the best artists in Scandinavia ; and 
his paintings here, where there are quite a 
number, show great genius as an artist, and 
the people are proud of him ; our consul at 
Christiana thinks he is superior to any other 
Swedish artist. 

I have before remarked that they have 
adopted in Norway and Sweden the " Gotten- 
borg system " of regulating the liquor traffic ; 
it is sold to what is called a Temperance 
Company, who must pay all profits into the 
municipality, and no one is allowed to sell 
who has any interest in the profits. Or a 
city or a district may refuse to sell liquor at 
retail. Liquor shops are closed in the coun- 
try, and in town may be closed by the author- 
ities, on Sunday and holidays. Stockholm 
adopted the " Gottenborg system " in 1877, 
and the police statistics show that drunk- 
enness and crime are steadily decreasing. 

At the tables, at hotels and private houses, 



90 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

they have a liquor called pomaraine, a kind of 
" schnaaps," and most of the gentlemen and 
ladies drink a small wine-glass full before 
eating, which they say is an appetizer. It is 
villainous tasting stuff with a flavor like 
chloroform and is made of potatoes. They 
have a curious custom before each meal ; a 
decanter of this liquor is placed on a side 
table with all kinds of cold meat and fish, and 
the guests are invited into the dining-room, 
each one steps up and takes a glass of liquor 
and helps himself to the cold meats, then 
walks around the room or out of doors and 
chats for awhile before he is invited to sit 
down to a regular warm meal. Some of the 
party, not understanding this custom, made 
the full meal on the cold viands, not knowing 
that they were merely an introduction, or 
appetizer as they call it. . 



To the Volga, 91 



VI. 



ACROSS THE BALTIC TO FINLAND. THE CHAR- 
ACTER OF THE FINS. 

OUR ride across the Baltic Sea, from Stock- 
holm to Finland was one of the most 
charming of our tour ; the scenery, for forty 
miles, until you reach the open sea, is one of 
continued picturesque islands, and on each 
side are more of the beautiful villas of the 
wealthy citizens of Stockholm. 

After a good night's sleep and a smooth 
sea, we find ourselves in the morning winding 
our way among the innumerable Aland 
Islands ; the sailing is intricate and danger- 
ous, but picturesque ; we are obliged to stop 
nights on account of the danger and diffi- 
culty in navigating among the rocks. 

The Gulf of Finland, which we enter, is in 
possession of Russia ; by occupying the 
Aland Islands she is only twenty miles from 
Stockholm, and is, therefore, brought into 
close proximity to Sweden. Our passengers 
on the steamer are mostly Fins and a few 



92 Ff'om the Land of the Midnight Sun 

Russians, and a more intelligent class of 
people than the former we never met ; they 
were evidently from the higher classes, and 
one of the young ladies was reported to be 
the belle of the capital of Finland. Of the 
party, a prominent lawyer and a member of 
the Senate, could speak a little English, and 
they gave us much valuable information. 

Russians are quite jealous of the privileges 
granted by the Emperor Alexander I. to Fin- 
land on the conquest of the country, and 
these have been further guaranteed by suc- 
ceeding Emperors ; they have a Senate of 
their own, composed of two hundred mem- 
bers, belonging to four orders — nobility, 
clergy, elected by the clergy and professors 
of colleges ; the industrial interests repre- 
senting the large towns and cities, and the 
peasants representing the farmers. It is 
necessary that all or a majority agree in pas- 
sing any law, and no troops can be raised 
without their consent ; in the Crimean war 
only about five hundred troops were from 
Finland, just enough to say to the Emperor 
that she was represented ; they have their 
own army and navy, educational and postal 
systems. 

The Emperor of Russia is not called Empe- 




A LAPLANDER'S HUT. 



To the Volga. 93 



ror of Finland, but Grand Duke of Finland. 
The population is over two million ; they are 
mostly Protestants (Lutherans), and they are 
obliged to teach their own language and not 
the Russian in their schools ; indeed they are 
allowed a kind of local self-government. 
They do not like Russia, but with Russia 
^' might makes right," and they cannot help 
themselves, as Russia feels the importance of 
controlling the Baltic, and until her surrender 
to Peter the Great, in 1809, Finland was fight- 
ing the ground between Russia and Sweden 
continually. 

We stop at Abo, the former capital of Fin- 
land, which was removed to Helsingfors on 
account of her people being wanting in loy- 
alty to Russia. We had been warned to have 
our passports '' vised " by the Russian Consul 
at Berlin, and to be doubly prepared, we had 
it done also before leaving Stockholm ; at 
Abo, a number of Russian custom-officers 
came on board the steamer and took our pass- 
ports, and examined closely our baggage, but 
in a gentlemanly manner, quite in contrast 
with some of our New York custom-house 
officers. 

No person is allowed to go in or out of 
Russia, not even her own citizens, without a 



94 From the La fid of the Midnight Sun 

passport ; the officers examined every nook 
and corner of the steamer, taking the bed- 
clothes from the berths and looking under 
them ; the captain informed us that he is sub- 
ject to a heavy fine if any one is found on 
the steamer without a passport. 

We got into a " drosky," a peculiar low 
kind of a vehicle, for a drive about the city, 
and especially to visit the old cathedral. Abo 
is the most ancient city in Finland and has a 
population of over twenty-five thousand, not 
a large number for a city that dates from the 
twelfth century, when Christianity was first 
introduced into this wild and cold region. 
The cathedral of ^' Saint Henriks " is not in- 
teresting architecturally, but historically ; it 
was the cradle of Christianity in Finland ; the 
vaults of the chapels are like the Catacombs 
and are filled with the remains of the early 
distinguished families. On one of the monu- 
ments is an epitaph to '' Catherina Mans- 
dotten," a girl taken from the ranks of the 
people by Eric XIV., in the twelfth century, 
and who, after having won the Swedish dia- 
dem, returned to Finland and died in ob- 
scurity, while her royal husband ended his 
days in prison. 

There is a beautiful stained window in the 



To the Volga. 95 



chapel, representing the Queen Catherina, 
leaving her glory and grandeur, which she 
bequeaths to Sweden, and descending the 
steps to the throne, with her hand affection- 
ately placed on the shoulders of a page, 
which typifies Finland. The other page, of 
whom she appears to be taking leave, repre- 
senting Sweden. Many ancient monuments 
are here, but the most interesting, the bones 
of Saint Henriks, have been removed to Saint 
Petersburg. There is here an old castle, 
built in the thirteenth century, and other ob- 
jects of interest. We ascend the observatory 
in the botanical gardens, and get a fine view 
of the beautiful city and surrounding country. 



96 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 



VII. 

ST. PETERSBURG, THE GREAT CAPITAL. SIGHTS 
OF INTEREST. THE PALACE AND FORTRESSES. 

WE can hardly realize that we are in this 
great city of a million population, 
founded by Peter the Great, in 1703. Some 
one describes St. Petersburg as " the eye by 
which Russia looks upon Europe." It is built 
on both banks of the Neva, and on several 
islands, which one can see from the cupola of 
St. Isaac in a clear day. Fourteen rivers and 
streams, and. eight canals, intersect the city 
in various parts. It was the design of Peter 
the Great to build the city on the north side 
of the Neva, formerly belonging to Sweden, 
which was taken by him from Sweden, but 
his councillors advised a different course, as 
Sweden might win back her possessions, and 
he would lose his city. 

Everywhere one sees relics of this wonder- 
ful man. Our second day in St. Petersburg 
was a holiday — " Transfiguration day " — and 
we. concluded to spend our time in visiting 



To the Volga. 97 



the churches, and witnessing the services, and 
seeing the people. Our hotel is on St. Isaac's 
square. Our rooms front the grand old 
cathedral of St. Isaac, and we never tire of 
admiring its grand proportions of '' modified 
Byzantine " simple and lofty style of archi- 
tecture. 

All the ground about St. Petersburg is flat 
and uninteresting, but the situation of the 
cathedral is on one of the largest squares, and 
is surrounded by lofty, splendid buildings, 
which give to it an imposing appearance. It 
is remarkable how different from most of the 
Greek churches it is, with hardly an orna- 
ment, built of stone from the Finland granite 
quarries. There are one hundred and twelve 
pillars, sixty feet high and seven feet in 
diameter. Over the main building is the 
central cupola, about three hundred feet 
high, supported by thirty pillars of polished 
granite. The cupola is covered with gold, 
and on the top ball is a golden cross, three 
hundred and thirty-six feet above the ground. 
One hundred and eighty-five pounds of gold 
cover the cupola, not including the cross. The 
interior of the church is grand and gorgeous 
in the extreme, with its different colored 
malachite colums and lapis lazuli pillars. The 



98 From the Land of the Midnight Sim 

floor and walls are of polished marble from the 
Russian quarries in Siberia. All the beauti- 
ful paintings on the wails are by Russian 
artists. The gilding is profuse, as in all 
Greek churches. We were glad to be located 
near it, that we may often visit it, and get a 
view of the city after ascending nearly five 
hundred and fifty steps. It was commenced 
by Catherine II., but half completed by Paul. 
One Russian writer paid the penalty of exile 
to Siberia by saying, " This church is a sym- 
bol of three reigns, granite, brick and destruc- 
tion." One notices, on entering a Greek 
church, large piles of candles, which are 
being sold to every one that comes in, 
who light them and go up to the altar, 
or pass them up through the crowd of 
worshippers, to be placed in one of the 
holes in a large silver stand, after crossing 
hisbreast a number of times with the thumb 
and two forefingers of his right hand and 
falling on his knees before the altar. His 
prayers are short, and he goes out with his 
face to the altar, kneeling and crossing him- 
self. . They seem to think the offering of a 
lighted candle has some miraculous power 
which saves them from their sins. I under- 
stand the sale of wax candles is a source of 



To the Volga. 99 



large income to the church. We saw a babe 
in the mother's arms placing a candle in its 
place and crossing itself under its mother's 
instructions. ''Flame with the worshippers 
is a symbol of the continued life of the good." 

Every one in these crowded churches to- 
day, men, women and children, seemed so 
sad and devotional, that one could not but 
feel that this was true devotion to their 
Maker according to their knowledge. There 
are no sacred ceremonies, no marriage, no 
burial, and no baptism without a light, either 
lamp or wax candle, and illuminations are a 
great feature in Russian churches. 

There are no organs or musical instruments 
in their churches, and all the voices are male. 
We never listened to such grand, harmonious 
music, as we heard in the Russian churches. 
We were told that the choicest music was at 
the " Monastery of St. Alexander Nevsky," 
one of the most noted in Russia, and for its 
building and decoration Peter the Great ex- 
pended immense sums. The marble was 
brought from foreign countries, the precious 
stones from Siberia, and pearls in abundance. 
Paintings from Rubens, and other of the old 
masters, adorn the walls. The shrine of 
Alexander Nevsky is of silver, and weighs 



loo From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

nearly thirty-five thousand pounds. Over it 
are silver angels as large as life, with silver 
trumpets, as everywhere there are life-size 
portraits of Peter the Great and Catharine 
II. The archbishop officiated to-day, and the 
ceremony was extremely gorgeous with the 
gold and silver wardrobes of the archbishop 
and priests. On one side of the altar were 
thirty-five monks, and opposite thirty-five boy 
singers. The bishop would intone the 
prayers, and one side would respond and 
then the other, and following altogether. 
The bishop was very large, with a rich, heavy 
bass voice, and we never heard such soprano 
and alto voices from any, however, as these 
monks possessed. The harmony was like the 
rich tones of an organ, rising to the grandest 
sounds, and falling to the minor, soft, sweet 
tones of the organ. There did not seem to be 
many voices, but one voice. We never ex- 
perienced such thrilling delight in music. 
The bishop seemed to be preparing for sacra- 
ment, and the unleavened cakes were borne 
on a silver altar by six priests through the 
cathedral, followed by a procession of priests, 
and the altar placed on the floor, where the 
carpet, or rug, had been prepared for it, and 
the singers all marched down singing ; and 




russian:;village and peasants. 



To the Volga. 



after various performances and burning of 
incense, and swinging silver incense lamps, 
they return to the main altar, after stopping 
at different places, once directly in front of 
us, and the singing was continued until the 
end of the service. All of the service by the 
voice was intoning or singing. 

The church is a fashionable one, and the 
Emperor is sometimes present. They show 
you in the cloister an immense number of 
gold staffs, pearls and precious stones, and 
the bed on which Peter died. 

We visit the " Preobrajenski," or fortress 
church, adorned within and without w4th 
troph es from conquered nations. We found 
the greatest crowd of people here, outside and 
in, and we could hardly push our way through, 
so great was the mass of human beings, all 
peasants or common people, with the peculiar 
dress of tLe women, with red bodices and red 
handkerchiefs on their heads. We soon 
learned the cause of the crowd. Alexander 
II. 's uniform and sword, with spots of blood 
upon it, which he wore when assassinated, 
were exposed to view in a silver case, and the 
people lingered around it as if the Czar had 
just been killed. I understand the people 
never weary of locking at them and stopping 



102 Fj'om the La7id of the Midnight Sun 



at the beautiful chapel erected where the 
bombs exploded and the Czar was killed. 
Even shrines are in the railroad stations with 
a picture of him, which the people worship. 
Evidently the common people are loyal to the 
autocratic power, and they do not forget that 
Alexander II. saved more men from slavery 
than any other human being by the eman- 
cipation of twenty-two million of serfs in 
1861, giving them their liberty. The Nihi- 
lists evidently do not come from this class, 
but, as our intelligent guide said, from 
the nobles who had their means of sup- 
port taken from them by the emancipation 
act. They were accustomed to hire out 
their serfs and received a large income 
from that source, and the enemies of the 
government are in its own household. The 
lower classes, our guide informed us, would 
almost take the life of any one heard saying 
anything against the Czar. 

Sunday was as quiet and orderly a day in 
St. Petersburg as in any city in the world, and 
the churches in the morning were crowded 
with people, and the great bells, one weighing 
sixty-four thousand pounds, of St. Isaac's, and 
the numerous other bells awakened us with 
their melodious silvery sounds. 



To the Volga. 103 



We went to St. Isaac's Cathedral and heard 
a sermon. By the attention given by the 
great audience standing (there are no seats in 
the Russian churches), we have no doubt they 
were deeply interested, and there must have 
been an immense sale of wax candles from the 
number burning around the church. 

We went from there to the English Episco- 
pal Church, and found a small audience and 
heard an impotent sermon that we could 
understand. We enjoyed the singing and 
services in our own language. 

We witnessed a number of funerals on the 
street, some with pall-bearers dressed in black, 
bearing the corps on their shoulders, followed 
by a little family, weeping, on foot, and other 
funerel processions with the hearse covered 
with gold and silver trappings and white 
plumes and silver harness upon the splendid 
large black horses, with a retinue of splendid 
carriages. One thing was noticeable — that 
when a funeral procession passes, no matter 
who they were, all take off their hats and stop 
a minute. It is wonderful how the people of 
all classes, high and low, rich and poor, seem 
to worship the Czar and the church, as they 
are one with them. 



I04 F7'om the Land of the Midnight Sun 



VIII. 

THE FAMOUS CATHEDRALS. FOUNDLING HOS- 
PITALS. VERITABLY *' A CITY OF PALACES." 

A LARGE cathedral is to be erected on 
the spot where the Czar was assassinated, 
and twelve million rubles had already been 
raised for that purpose. Among the other 
cathedrals we visited was the Kazan, dedi- 
cated to our Lady of Kazan. It is built 
after the style of St. Peter's of Rome. 
Diamonds and precious stones of the most 
costly and exquisite beauty are seen every- 
where ; but the silver case contained, as 
the priest showed us, the genuine right 
hand of *' John the Baptist," a piece of 
" the Holy Cross of our Saviour," " a Picture of 
Saint Luke," taken from life, " a piece of the 
shirt of our Saviour," and a miraculous image 
of the Virgin, brought from Kazan in 1579, 
covered with fine gold and precious stones, 
valued at one hundred thousand dollars. 
There are a great many churches here, and 



To the Volga. 105 



it would tire the reader to follow us with 
all of interest that we saw. 

Another great crowd was at Peter the 
Great's cottage, which was the first house and 
cottage he built in 1703. A great many 
things, including the celebrated boat of Peter 
the Great, which he built and sailed himself, 
having served as an apprentice to a ship- 
builder. The great crowd seemed to be push- 
ing their way to a little chapel which was for- 
merly used for his dining-room. Candles 
were sold and lighted, and carried to the 
altar, and we are informed that all Russians 
leaving St. Petersburg on a journey, come 
here and make an offering to the miraculous 
image of the saviour which accompanied Peter 
the Great in his battles, and assisted at the 
battle of " Poltava." They believe if they do 
this that prosperity during their journey and 
a safe return will be vouchsafed to them. 
When the Russians are in great trouble they 
go to St. Isaac's Cathedral, and when they 
desire '' business prosperity " to accompany 
them, they go to the Kazan Cathedral. If in 
sickness they go to the Preobrajenski Church ; 
if to be married, to St. Peter and St. Paul, 
and buy a candle and place it on the altar and 
make an offering. All these add largely to 



io6 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

the coffers of the church finances. In the 
church of St. Peter and St. Paul, with the 
highest spires in Russia, three hundred 
and seventy-one feet high, all the Em- 
perors have been buried since the foun- 
dation of St, Petersburg. Alexander II. and 
his wife are buried here and a great num- 
ber gather about his sarcophagus, which is 
covered continually with wreaths of flowers 
brought from different parts of the empire. 
Near him is that of his wife with a beautiful 
memorial in marble in a reclining posture 
with an angel over her weeping. We bought 
a copy of a memorial printed in Russian, with 
fine portraits of both. 

We notice about the Russian churches a 
large number of beggars with their plates in 
their hands, holding them out to receive bene- 
factions. A beggar with them is still re- 
garded as almost a holy person, and they are 
voluminous in their pious vows and benedic- 
tions for a person who gives them anything. 

** The Foundling Hospital " is the most in- 
teresting institution, founded by Catherine 
II. We were first shown by the good matron 
to the window on the street where each in- 
fant is received into the hospital, and it is not 
necessarily known who brought it or where it 



U 



To the Volga. 107 



came from. A register was shown us where 
these questions only are asked: "Has the 
child been baptized? What name?" The 
child then has a number placed against the 
name, which is worn around its neck and on 
its bed, when a receipt is handed to the bearer 
of "he child, and the mother can visit it if she 
chooses, or claim it after ten years. We 
visited the different wards, one room where 
twenty-five had been brought in that morn- 
ing, and were being bathed and dressed, and 
wet-nurses (the latter all dressed in check 
dresses and white bodices and bare arms) as- 
signed to them. Most of these nurses were 
young peasant girls, who probably had 
children in the institution unknown to the 
manager. Many of them had two children 
nursing at the same time. We were shown 
into fifteen or twenty different departments, 
and everything was clean and neat, and every 
exertion possible made to preserve life. In 
one room a large number were prematurely 
born, and the manager informed us that they 
nearly all die. The warm bathing-rooms, and 
the dressing of the little things in white linen 
swaddling clothes on down pillows, was as 
delicately and tenderly performed as if they 
were the children of the rich. In most of the 



io8 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

rooms as we entered all the nurses would 
stand up with the babes in their arms. One 
room was shown us containing a dozen or 
more dead ones being prepared for burial, 
another room where baths and other appli- 
ances were used to fan the flame of 
life apparently almost extinct. It is said the 
number is increasing rapidly, and about ten 
thousand are admitted annually, and about 
fifty per cent, die before they reach the age of 
one year, as after remaining for four weeks, 
and having been vaccinated, they are sent 
to the villages where the nurses formerly 
lived. Only about twenty-five per cent, of 
those brought to the institution arrive at ma- 
turity. The nurses get about one dollar a 
month for nursing and caring for them. 
About thirty thousand in all have been cared 
for in the adjacent villages, factories, etc. 

The official who showed us through the 
building was exceedingly polite and atten- 
tive, and had upon his breast a number of 
gold medals received for bravery in numerous 
battles in which he had participated, and at 
our request he gave us the names of the bat- 
tles, but I do not remember. Some of them 
were in the Crimean war, and he was on the 
retired list, serving the government in this 



T'o the Volga. 109 



way. A marble statue of Betski, the pro- 
jector, an eminent philanthropist, and a por- 
trait of Catherine II. adorn the walls of the 
entrance hall. 

When Russia undertakes any enterprise 
like this, or, indeed, anything else, she seems 
to have "Excelsior" for her motto. Some 
argue that such institutions increase illegiti- 
macy, and that there are a larger number of 
illegitimate births in Russia than France. 
No doubt there is some other reason for this 
than the humane care for the unfortunate 
babies. Our ladies called my attention to the 
care given to a large number prematurely 
brought into the world, and discussed the 
humanity of trying to save those who, to 
them, seemed never could become strong 
and of good constitutions, even if kept alive. 
In a double box, about two feet long, stuffed 
and cushioned with down, were two little red 
faces, about the size of the palm of the hand, 
peeping through the soft downy caps, all 
shriveled and drawn up. You could only 
see the faces. Outside the box, and between 
the bodies, was warm water, creating a warm 
vaporous atmosphere, and if anything would 
keep the little waifs alive this care and kind 
attention would put life into them. 



no From the La7id of the Midnight Sun 

At night we witnessed a scene quite in 
contrast. We visited one of the great pub- 
lic gardens, some distance from the center of 
the city, called the Zoological Gardens, 
lighted with electric light, where are a large 
number of wild animals of all descriptions, 
and beautiful grounds with shady trees and 
flower-beds, and various performances, oper- 
atic, where was some splendid Russian 
singing, a band of music and gymnastic ex- 
ercises, comic singing, and everything to 
amuse the masses. 

We had quite an experience with our dros- 
ky drivers in getting to the garden. A drosky 
is a small, low, four-wheeled vehicle, and it 
was necessary to place my arms around my 
wife to keep her from falling out, the seat was 
so narrow. Five or six droskies started off 
from our hotel together, '' Jehu " like, but 
soon they got into a race in spite of all we 
could do. On they went, passing every one 
on the way at a breakneck speed, which would 
have amused our American friends. All we 
had do was to hold our breath and hold on to 
our seat. Our driver came out ahead and as 
the others came following on they did not 
care to have another drosky race. We had a 
wild babel scene at the entrance gate, for we 




To the Volga. iii 



had made a contract with our drivers to take 
us to the garden for a certain sum, and when 
we came to pay them they demanded more, 
I suppose on account of the race. We could 
not understand a word of the Russian lan- 
guage, and they could not understand us, and 
they swung their whips and gesticulated until 
the police came, and we were glad to get off 
by paying what they demanded. The har- 
nesses have a curious appendage ; over the 
shoulders of the horse is a kind of inverted 
wooden ox-bow three or four feet high. Some 
are painted green and some fancy figures of 
saints. I cannot understand the object and 
it seems as if it was merely an old custom 
which they cling to. One of our gentlemen 
thought it was artistic, but to me they seem a 
heavy, unnecessary appendage which adds to 
the burden of the horse. There is not more 
than one-quarter of the leather in their har- 
nesses as with us, and they are light and 
graceful. 

The drosky drivers in the hottest days are 
all dressed in a long plaited woolen frock 
reaching to the feet, with a band around the 
waist and a regulation cap, which gives them 
the appearance of a priest in his long gar- 
ments. It seems as if they must be heavy, 



ii2 Fro77i the Land of the Mid?nght Sun 

cumbersome and uncomfortable, and why 
they should be required to dress thus I could 
not understand. In wet and muddy weather 
the garments, all filth, draggle around their 
feet. 

" The city of Palaces." I asked our intelli- 
gent guide. *' How many different palaces 
has the Czar?" He replied, "Fifteen or 
twenty," and some of them, like the winter 
palace, the largest and most magnificent 
in the world, with its one hundred and 
twenty-eight magnificently furnished rooms, 
the winter residence of the Emperor. We 
are told that since the assassination of 
the late Emperor no one but the family are 
allowed to visit the winter palace. After con- 
siderable trouble and efforts of our guide, 
who said our being Americans helped him in 
getting permission from the commissioners, 
we gained admission. He said Americans 
were held in high esteem by the government. 

We were delighted with the prospect and 
gave one day to the winter palace and hermi- 
tage. We were surprised at its immense size 
as we approached it from the Neva. It is 
about four hundred and fifty feet long by 
three hundred and fifty feet in breadth and 
eighty feet high. We pass through room 



To the Volga. 113 



after room and various halls, covered mostly 
with battle scenes and portraits of Emperors 
and Queens and distinguished persons. 

We have visited most of the palaces in Eu- 
rope and have never seen .anything to com- 
pare with the drawing-rooms of the Empress, 
with the gold-covered walls and ceilings, and 
when illuminited at evening receptions must 
present an enchanting scene. We were not 
allowed to see the crown jewels, as three days 
before they had been sealed up according to 
custom after a coronation, and would not be 
opened 'for three years. We passed through 
the Emperor's (Alexander II.) dining-room, 
which was blown up just as he was about en- 
tering in 1881, killing eighteen soldiers. In 
one minute more he would have been blown 
to atoms. The steps under which the fuse 
was placed were lifted from their places and 
blown to pieces, and the rooms in the vicinity 
more or less shattered. All the gold and pre- 
cious stones of the Ural mountains could not 
insure his life, and he was at last assassinated. 

The rooms and bed where the late Empress 
died, and was kept alive for six months by 
artificial means after life seemed extinct ; an 
ox was killed every day and the warm blood 
put into her bath-tub and she was kept aliv^ 



114 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

by bathing in it. These rooms are to be 
closed and not opened to the public for a 
generation. The present Empress' rooms 
were splendid. She is the daughter of the 
King of Denmark and sister of the Princess of 
Wales of England, and is said to be the most 
intelligent and best posted Queen in the 
world in regard to the affairs of government ; 
but how unhappy and anxious she must be 
amid all the glittering jewels and silver and 
golden wardrobe and richest lace around her 
bed. We then come to the room where 
Emperor Nicholas died in 1855, on a plain 
iron bedstead, and cheaply furnished apart- 
ments. The room, with his cloak and gar- 
ments, just as he left it, with all the appurten- 
ances, report of the quartermaster, etc., just 
as it was when he heard of the defeat of his 
army in the Crimea. He was so overwhelmed 
with disappointment that he died suddenly on 
receiving the news. 

On every article in the room is a pocket 
handkerchief. One of his peculiarities was 
an extravagant use of pocket handkerchiefs, 
and he had one on everything in the room 
where it could be within his reach. 

We visited the Hermitage gallery of pain- 
tings adjoining the palace, founded by Cath- 



To the Volga. 115 



arine II., who gave its name " Hermitage." 
It forms a parallelogram five hundred and 
fifty feet by about four hundred, and for its 
splendid architectural proportions and costly 
marbles is the finest gallery in the world, 
and contains about two thousand paintings. 
Among some of the most valuable of the 
masters are sixty of Rubens, including por- 
traits of his first and second wives, and 
many others of great value ; twenty by Mur- 
illo, including ^' The Assumption ; " many of 
Raphael's, VanDyck's, Tenier's, Paul Potter's 
and Titian's. The Hermitage has more 
paintings by Rembrandt than all of Holland, 
where he lived. One can never tire of look- 
ing at these wonderful works of art by the 
best artists of Holland, Germany, Italy. 
France, England and Russia, which we found 
here. 

The numismatic collection, commenced by 
Catherine 11. , is perhaps the largest in the 
world, with its eight thousand specimens of 
Russian coins, some dating from the tenth 
century. There are over two hundred thous- 
and specimens in these rooms, and we were 
more interested with the one thousand speci- 
mens or more of Etheldred II., Canute and 
other early kings of England, which have been 



ii6 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

found in Russia, where they must have been 
circulated in payment for the celebrated furs 
of Russia. The collection of gems and preci- 
ous stones is almost without number, and one 
gets confused with the immense number and 
value of these specimens of vases, mosaic 
tables, etc. 

Peter the Great's room is one of the most 
attractive, containing a large number of the 
various specimens of his mechanical genius, 
where we see his engravings, turning and car- 
penter work, as he not only ruled a great em- 
pire, but worked as a mechanic, and the tele- 
scope and mathematical instruments which 
he used are seen, and a wooden rod is shown 
us of his height, which measured seven feet, a 
large number of portraits in oil and statuary 
and an effigy in the peculiar odd dress of the 
time in which he lived, embroidered for him 
by Catherine I. for her coronation. We see 
everywhere something to remind us of Peter 
the Great. 

All Russia seems but one vast monument 
of his genius. " He gave her six new pro- 
vinces, a footing upon two seas, a regular 
army trained on the Europeon system, a large 
fleet, an admiralty, and a naval academy, edu- 
cational establishments, and this splendid 




^ 



To the Volga. 117 



gallery of painting and sculpture and library. 
Nothing seemed to escape his notice. He 
had the Russian letters altered to make them 
adapted to printing, and changed the dress of 
his subjects to be more in conformity with 
the rest of Europe," and all this was accom- 
plished in a lifetime of only a half century, as 
he died at the age of fifty-two. His son, 
Alexis, no doubt came to his sudden death 
through the instrumentality of his father, and 
he no doubt had many intrigues with ladies 
of his court, showing traces that '' the hero 
was mixed with much clay." Forcing his 
wife, Eudoxia, to take the veil and transferred 
his affections to others, and finally married 
Catherine, the daughter of a peasant and wife 
of a Swedish corporal, whose family had been 
taken prisoners. She was said to be an ami- 
able but illiterate woman, who could neither 
read or write. She succeeded Peter the 
Great, receiving the homage of her courtiers 
in the room in the winter palace (where we 
are) while the body of Peter was lying in 
state. The Russians never weary of showing 
you something about him at nearly every 
place we visited. At Peterhof is a low Dutch 
looking summer house where he lived, and 
where Empress Elizabeth used to cook her 



ii8 From the Latid of the AI id night Sun 

own dinners in the great fire-place. His vari- 
ous rooms with paintings Avhich he purchased 
while traveling in Holland ; his bed, night- 
cap, dressing-gown and slippers, etc. They 
tell an incident that occurred while he was 
on a visit to London. While going to West- 
minster hall he noticed a large number of 
men with wigs and gowns on. Peter asked 
who those people might be ? and when in- 
formed by those accompanying him that they 
were lawyers. " Lawyers !" he said. " Why I 
have but two in all my dominions and I be- 
lieve I shall have one of them hung when I 
get home." 




To the Volga. 119 



IX. 



THE MINING SCHOOL. MUSEUMS AND ACADE- 
MIES. PETERHOF. DANGERS FROM NIHILISM. 

WE visited the celebrated mining school, 
which is one of the most complete in the 
world. The superintendent gave each one of 
us a lighted taper, and we wsnt under ground, 
and apparently through mountains, in various 
directions, for a long distance, and the 
different geological positions of the minerals 
as they are found in the Ural mountains, with 
layers and color of the different minerals of 
coal, platina, iron, copper, silver, gold and 
precious stones, sapphires, emerald, amethyst, 
agate, rhodorite, the rock crystal, jasper, 
chrysoberyl, and black tourmaline and dia- 
monds. All was explained to us, and I could 
well understand how a student would have a 
complete knowledge of mining with such 
practical illustrations and applications. There 
are about three hundred pupils, and miners 
are represented in miniature, going through 
the operations of mining, and we could 



I20 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

hardly realize that we were not examining 
genuine mines. There are here, perhaps, the 
best collection of minerals in the world. A 
solid piece of real gold, from Siberia, worth 
fifty millions of rubles, an immense number 
of pearls, some as large as a walnut, the 
largest in the world. The mineral wealth of 
Russia is immense. The specimens of beryls, 
tourmalines, topazes, and other precious 
stones from Siberia are astonishing. Some of 
the beryls were a foot in length, large tour- 
quois, and the largest black diamond in the 
world, a solid mass of malachite, weighing 
thirty cwt. One becomes confused at the 
splendid display of minerals and precious 
stones. 

There seems to be no end to academies of 
sciences and museums in St. Petersburg. In 
the Zoological Museum the great mastodon 
and rhinoceros, the largest, I am told, in the 
world, found on the banks of the river I^ena, 
in Siberia, by a peasant. These had been pre- 
served (we are told) one hundred thousand 
years, or countless ages, in the ice of Siberian 
rivers, and the flesh so preserved that, when 
discovered, wolves and bears came down to 
feed upon them. This frame, as it was put to- 
gether, looked to us, as near as we could 



To the Volga. 



measure it, thirteen to fifteen feet long, and 
two feet higher than a large elephant in the 
vicinity. Its tusks were eight to ten feet long. 

After examining numerous museums, gal- 
leries of paintings, palaces, etc., our guide re- 
marked, " all these belong to the Emperor. 
He has the key to the government treasury. 
The people have nothing ! " 

Our visit to Peterhof, the present residence 
of Alexander III., was intensely interesting, 
as the Emperor and his family were here. 
We were fortunate in having a most delight- 
ful day. We took the steamer down the 
Neva, and across the gulf of Finland, about 
twenty miles. We could see Cronstadt in 
the distance, and the beautiful palaces of 
Peterhof peeping through the green forests. 
On board our steamer were a number of 
officers of the Russian army and their famil- 
ies, dressed as they all seemed to be every- 
where, with heavy cadet mixed overcoats, 
reaching to their feet. No matter how warm 
it is (this was a warm August day) they wear 
their heavy overcoats. While we were talk- 
ing with our guide, who was a Russian, I 
noticed a number of police in uniform stand- 
ing around us, and sl5dy creeping up behind 
us, evidenily to hear what we were talking 



122 Fro77i the Land of the Midnight Sun 

about, and soon two ladies, who could talk 
English, came near to us, and remained until 
we changed our location, and then, as if by 
chance, appeared near us again, and were 
about when we were on deck, or in the cabin, 
both going and returning. We were convers- 
ing with our guide about the Czar, mention- 
ing his name frequently, and asking questions 
about the family, and the guide was pointing 
out to me the villa where he resided, etc. 
The guide suddenly whispered to me that we 
must cease talking about the Emperor, as 
the police heard us mentioning the name of 
Alexander III. frequently, and they were 
gathering around us to learn what we were 
saying ; and the two ladies were private de- 
tectives, who accompany every steamer and 
watch every stranger to see if they can dis- 
cover if any one has designs on the Emperor. 
Ever since the coronation unusual precaution 
is used. We did not feel very comfortable in 
a strange country, and only Mrs. S. and my- 
self, to have so many of the police and de- 
tectives about us. Everybody seems to look 
at each other in Russia ominously, and ask 
" What is going to happen next ? " The 
coronation is over. Much excitement fol- 
lowed the publication of the rescript of the 




To the Volga. 123 



Czar. All seemed to think in Russia that 
after the coronation every kind of business 
would revive ; all who were poor would be 
rich ; all who were in prison would be free ; 
all the exiles in Siberia would be liberated ; 
all foreigners were to become naturalized, or 
leave the country, and refused a passport to 
remain. The Nihilists expected a constitu- 
tion. It has now been three months since the 
coronation and nothing is done. The Em- 
peror announces that nothing will be done. 
Business in St. Petersburg is unsettled, and 
the government is using every effort to pre- 
vent another assassination. When we arrived 
at the wharf at Peterhof, a number of splen- 
did equipages were in waiting for the officers 
of the army. One general entered a small 
open Victoria phaeton, drawn by four splen- 
did horses abreast, and a number of others 
followed. 

Our approach to the grounds was enchant- 
ing. The palaces were plain style of archi- 
tecture, built by Peter the Great in 1720, on 
rising ground about sixty or seventy feet. As 
we approach them we look through the long 
arches of trees and in the distance see fountains 
playing in every direction, until we reach the 
fountain called the Samson, tearing open the 



124 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

jaws of a lion, out of which the water rushes. 
In front of the palace is a waterfall probably 
one hundred feet high, falling over wide steps, 
behind which are colored lamps, placed be- 
hind the water for an illumination. Over one 
hundred jets of water were playing eighty to 
one hundred feet high, and one foot in 
diameter. From the top of the steps we 
have a view to the sea, five hundred yards, 
through the forests where a river runs, and 
the gardens laid out in terraces and flowers, 
fountains and waterfalls ; the Lion Fountain, 
the Neptunes, storks, nymphs, dolphins, rocks 
and grottoes ; with the water thrown in 
every direction — all seems like fairyland. 
We think the magnificence and artistic ar- 
rangement superior to those at Versailles, or 
any in the world, and we were fortunate in 
visiting here on a day when they were all 
playing. It was a gala day, and great crowds 
of the elite of St. Petersburg were here with 
their splendid equipages. Not less than one 
hundred carriages were in a row, while 
their occupants were promenading up and 
down the beautiful grounds. On each side 
were bands of music — one would play and 
then the other, and in the distance others 
could be heard. The dresses of the ladies 



To the Volga. 125 



were equal to any we ever saw in Paris, rich, 
but in good taste. The ladies were large 
and fair-looking, with a German look. When 
I learned afterward that nearly one-half of 
the population of St. Petersburg were Ger- 
mans, accounted for the appearance of the 
ladies. We visited the palaces and villas, 
which are scattered through the grounds, 
adorned with lakes and flower gardens, and 
the chalets belonging to the royal family. 
One especially, belonging to the late Empe- 
ror Nicholas' wife, finished in blue with 
mosaic floors and tables, captivated my wife. 

The most attractive paintings in the palace 
were, I should think, nine hundred or one 
thousand portraits of beautiful Russian girls 
from the different provinces of Russia in the 
peculiar costumes of their country, in differ- 
ent positions, with all the colors of their 
wardrobes, with a different expression and 
position to each one, one leaning over a chair 
as if listening to a lover, etc. 

After spending the day here we could not 
but cast a glance and a thought at the poor 
Emperor and his family in their Alexandrian 
villa, with a high wall around the premises, 
and numerous soldiers guarding the walls and 
entrance and not allowing any one, not even 



126 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

the servants, to go in or out without a pass, 
and when he comes from or goes to the city, 
his steamer lands far away from the other 
landings, near his villa. We met a black 
steamer bearing dispatches to him from the 
Premier de Girs, who informs him what is 
going on in his own dominions and in the 
world, twice a day. This was a grand day 
for us, and we came away with the impres- 
sion that Peterhof was more beautiful than 
Hampton Court, Versailles, Schonbrunn in 
Vienna, or Potsdam in Berlin. On our return 
to the steamer we found the same lady detec- 
tives and police, but Mrs. S. did not enjoy 
being under police surveillance in Russia. 

While we were there we understood that 
Nihilist papers were being distributed in the 
Emperor's palace among his own household. 
One day the Empress opened the door sud- 
denly into the chamberlain's room, and she 
observed that he hid a paper away in his side 
pocket. She had him examined, and the 
paper proved to be a Nihilist paper, and with- 
out any trial he was summarily sent to Siberia. 
There are a great many arrests made every 
few days, but it seems to be the policy of the 
government to keep it from the people, and 
the papers say that all is peace and harmony. 



To the Volga. 127 



X. 



MOSCOW. THE CAPITAL OF THE RURIKS. THE 
TOWN OF IVAN. THE GREAT BELL. THE 
PEASANTRY AND THEIR CHARACTER. 

OUR ride from St. Petersburg to Moscow 
by rail was an interesting one, over a 
splendid road, with compartment cars, which 
are arranged for very comfortable sleepmg 
cars. All the appurtenances of the road are 
first-class ; the road is straight and solid, and 
the depots are large, built of stone, and of at- 
tractive style of architecture. At the end of 
the depot is a bell over which is a roof covered 
with woodbine, which hangs gracefully down 
to the ground. There are three bells of warn- 
ing sounded before the cars, start, followed by 
blowing of the engine whistle. It is stated 
that when the engineer of the road presented 
his profile and plans to build the road, show- 
ing how each large city could be reached, the 
Emperor was dissatisfied, and took out his 
rule and drew a straight line from St. Peters- 
burg to Moscow, and said, " Build the road 



128 Fro?n the Land of the Midnight Sun 

straight, without regard to cities or obsta- 
cles." It was done, and branch roads had to 
be constructed to accommodate the cities, 
but he had an opportunity to show his auto- 
cratic power. 

Our first view of " Matushka Moskva," 
Mother Moskva, as the peasants delight to 
call the capital of the Ruriks, was early one 
beautiful morning, from our car of observa- 
tion from St. Petersburg, just as the bright 
sun shone out upon the eight hundred 
churches ; many of them, with their towers 
and turrets covered with gold, gave a most 
thrilling feeling as we for the first time looked 
upon the city with so many historical associa- 
tions. There is a great contrast between this 
city and St. Petersburg — the latter with its 
wide, straight streets, and splendid modern 
architectural buildings, all of stone or brick, 
covered with stucco of a yellowish tint, the 
surface of the country flat and uninteresting, 
looks like a modern city like Chicago ; while 
Moscow is on hills, with sudden ascents and 
descents, with winding streets, and many of 
the houses are frame, and the roofs are 
painted green, and it looks like an oriental 
city. The most prominent thing is its antique 
churches of the showy, gaudy Byzantine 



To the Volga. 129 



architecture, with five towers or spires. All 
of the Greek churches formerly had seven 
towers, but Peter the Great issued the 
" ukase " that the churches should have only 
five. Moscow is Russian, and you see that it 
is Asiatic, w^hile St. Petersburg is European. 
On the streets we at once noticed the bright 
red dresses and scarlet handkerchiefs of the 
worrten, pinned coquettishly on the head, and 
the red cotton shirts or smock frocks, fastened 
around the waist by a girdle, of the working 
men. We begin to realize that we are in an 
ancient city, built first in the twelfth century, 
and several times destroyed by fire — the last 
time at the entrance of Napoleon Jn 181 2 — 
and for many years the capital of Russia. 
It is a prosperous and growing city of about 
seven hundred thousand inhabitants, and 
when you ask, what are your business pros- 
pects ? the answer is quite in contrast with 
the reply in St. Petersburg : " All our 
numerous manufactories, about six hundred 
in all, employing fifty thousand men, are in 
operation, and there is a good demand for all 
our products. This is the great center of the 
Russian railway system, and we expect to be 
a larger city than our rival on the Neva. 
Why should we not, with our central location 






130 From the La?id of the Midnight Sun 

and Russia's one hundred million population, 
and increasing ? " We certainly have not seen 
more activity in the streets of any city that 
we have visited. The Kremlin has been the 
great palladium of Russia, and is regarded 
with superstitious veneration. We first take 
a carriage to ride about the city, and get the 
best view of the Kremlin, which is a triangu- 
lar inclosure of about two miles, situated on 
the Moskva River, and a ride along the river 
under the Kremlin gives one an idea of the 
oriental and picturesque hill, surrounded 
with high, strong walls, with its thirty-two 
churches, and the only part of Moscow which 
was saved from the terrible conflagration in 
1812. We enter the Kremlin first through 
the Redeemer's gate (there are five gates in 
all built in the fifteenth century). As we 
passed through the gate we noticed a number 
of women on each side bowing to the ground 
and crossing themselves, looking directly 
toward us, and we took off our hats and 
bowed to them, when we were informed that 
we were not the object of their attention, but 
the picture of the Redeemer of Smolensk, 
held in high veneration. We were unfor- 
tunate in having a drunken driver who could 
hardly sit upon the seat ; but he did not 



To the Volga. 131 



forget to bow and cross himself several 
times, and remind us that we were passing 
through the holy gate, and that we must take 
off our hats, as the Emperor and every one 
else was expected to do. We desired to con- 
form to the old custom and tradition, and un- 
covered our heads. 

We first prepare to ascend the great " tower 
of Ivan the Great," three hundred and twenty- 
five feet high, erected in 1600. We stop to 
look at the largest bell in the world, called 
'' Tzar Kolokol," king of bells, which lies at 
the foot of the tower on a pedestal, and 
weighs four hundred and forty-four thousand 
pounds, is twenty-six feet high, and sixty- 
eight feet in circumference. The tower is 
five stories high, and we counted in it thirty- 
four bells, the largest, with the name of the 
''Assumption" on it, weighing sixty-four 
tons. On the top of the tower we get a 
splendid view of Moscow, and it is certainly 
one of the most wonderful and unique cities 
in the world. The Kremlin is below us, the 
Moskva winding its way through the city, 
with the numerous boats upon it, and a great 
number of women in their bright dresses 
washing in the river. The splendid churches, 
with their gold and silver domes glittering in 



132 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

the sunshine, the roofs of the houses all 
painted green, and the distant hills from 
which Napoleon first looked upon the city in 
flames, after his long march in mid-winter, 
all come rushing into one's mind with the 
historical incidents connected with the terri- 
ble march. There is a chapel in the lower 
part of the tower, which was especially inter- 
esting to the young ladies, and is called St. 
Nicholas, where the young ladies of Moscow 
all go who are about to marry, as St. Nicholas 
is their patron saint. Near by is the cathedral 
of the Assumption, with its five domes, which is 
more of Saxon and Norman style of architec- 
ture than Italian, and was consecrated in 
1479. This cathedral is especially interesting 
as being the church where all the Emperors 
are crowned, and where the present Czar was 
crowned last May (twenty-seven old style, or 
fifteen new style), or rather crowned himself, 
as he places the crown upon his head with 
his own hands. The platform was carpeted 
where he stood, and the pictures of one 
thousand saints on the walls covered with 
gold, all of which had been burnished up for 
the coronation. 

Among the very old and valuable paintings 
is one which they say was painted by St, 





NORTH RUSSIANS. 



To the Volga. 133 



Luke, of the Holy Virgin. A small case is 
opened, and we are shown a nail of the Cross 
of Christ and a piece of his robe and various 
other old relics of the Apostles, which they 
seem to believe are genuine, but this does not, 
prevent us doubting it. These cathedrals con. 
tain so many articles and rich vases studded 
with diamonds and precious stones, as if the 
rich mineral resources of Russia had been ex- 
hausted to adorn the churches. Near this 
cathedral is that of St. Michael's, where all 
the Russian Czars were buried until the time 
of Peter the Great. It is similar in architec^ 
tural appearance to the former and was built 
in the fourteenth century, and was the place 
where Napoleon stabled his horses in 1812. 
The tomb of the greatest interest is that of 
Ivan, '^ The Terrible," who forms the subject 
of so many Russian poems. Special funeral 
services are held here twice a year, with great 
pomp, where the souls of all those who are 
buried here are prayed for by the church. 
The priest allowed the gentlemen of the party 
(no ladies were allowed inside the " Ikonos- 
tas " ) to examine the gorgeous vestments 
and costly treasures which had been presented 
to the church to pay for prayers being 
offered up for the souls of departed friends. 



134 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

A cross which belonged to Ivan, ''The Terri- 
ble," had immense pearls in it, and an eme- 
rald one-third to one-half an inch in diame- 
ter. We were interested most in a splendid 
illuminated version of the Gospels with the 
date 1 1 25 — the earliest copy in Russia; the 
cover was enameled and full of the most rare 
and costly precious stones. Another church 
near there is that of the Annunciation, where 
all the Czars are baptized and married. Here 
also are shown a great many relics, one an 
image of the Holy Virgin, made of three hun- 
dred and sixty pounds of silver and twenty 
pounds of gold, brought from Constantinople 
five hundred years ago, and was often carried 
in the early battles of Russia, and was con- 
sidered to have miraculous power. There are 
a great many curious frescoes here, and the 
floor of the church is paved with agate and 
jasper. These three cathedrals adjoining 
each other are historic on account of that of 
the Assumption being where the Czars are 
crowned, St. Michael's where they are buried, 
and the Annunciation where they are bap- 
tized and married. The place is also shown 
where the false Demetrius fell while leaping 
from one of the windows behind the palace. 
Near the entrance to the Kremlin by the 




To the Volga. 135 



Spankoi gate is one of the most curious fan- 
tastic churches in the world, which is called 
St. Basil, and was built in 1554, by Ivan, 
*' The Terrible." It has fifteen towers and 
the same number of chapels inside, and is 
painted outside with a variety of bright colors, 
green predominating, and the architect, so it 
is stated, had his eyes put out by Ivan so that 
he could not build another church like it. 
Napoleon ordered it destroyed, but it was 
saved. We never shall forget that on the day 
we visited it some fifty or seventy-five bright 
boys came in and most devoutly were offering 
their devotions in a solemn and graceful man- 
ner. As they enter the chapel they drop on 
to one knee, bowing the head to the pave- 
ment, crossing the breast frequently with the 
thumb and two fore-fingers of the right hand ; 
as they return they kneel and cross them- 
selves. The boys were so bright and all 
dressed in linen suits, with white caps and 
closely cut hair, that I asked our guide who 
they were. The superintendent, who was 
with them, informed me that they were from 
the deaf and dumb school. I was glad to 
m.eet him, and we conversed awhile as best 
we could through an interpreter, and he gave 
me a cordial invitation to visit the school at 



136 From the Laud of the Midnight Sun 

three o'clock p. m. All the scholars in schools 
for the deaf and dumb in Russia are taught 
to speak, and no instruction is given by signs 
whatever. There are similar schools in St. 
Petersburg and in Warsaw, which we visited. 
They claim that every deaf mute can be 
taught to talk, and all the instruction is given 
orally. 

The new cathedral, called St. Saviour, is 
one of the most conspicuous in Moscow, and 
was dedicated just after the coronation in 
May last, and was commenced by Alexander 
I. forty-two years ago, in commemoration of 
Russia's delivery from the French. It is of 
stone and Byzantine style of architecture. 
The architect was sick at the time it was to 
be dedicated, and he asked to be taken to 
it so that he could survey his splendid archi- 
tectural production, and died a day or two 
afterward, before it was dedicated. There 
are about six thousand paintings, of various 
historical and allegorical scenes and saints, 
and cost fifteen millions of rubles or about 
six million dollars. When illuminated, as it 
was at the dedication, twelve thousand 
candles were lighted, so arranged about the 
inside as to present a most brilliant effect. 
A grand cathedral is to be erected by order 



To the Volga. 137 



of the Czar in every city in the empire in 
commemoration of the assassination of Alex- 
ander II. The poor peasants are just able to 
keep soul and body together, and the cattle 
plague is taking off thousands of their cattle, 
yet these costly cathedrals are built by order 
of the Czar, who holds the key to the trea- 
sury of the empire. 

There are said to be four thousand bells in 
the city, and when they are all sounded, as on 
Easter morning, the effect is enchanting, as 
the great bell of the cathedral, which takes a 
dozen men to toll it and is said to sound like 
the rolling of distant thunder. 

Some one, in his travels, describes the ring- 
ing of all the bells in Moscow on Easter eve : 
" At midnight the great bell of the cathedral 
tolled. Its vibrations seemed to be the roll- 
ing of distant thunder, and they were in- 
stantly accompanied by the noise of all the 
small bells in Moscow. Every inhabitant was 
stirring, and the rattling of carriages in the 
street was greater than at noon-day. The 
whole city was in a blaze, lights were seen in 
all the windows, and innumerable torches in 
the streets. The tower of the cathedral was 
illuminated from its foundation to its cross. 
The same ceremony takes place in all the 



138 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

churches, and what is truly surprising, con- 
sidering their number, they are all equally 
crowded. We hastened to the cathedral, it 
was filled with a prodigious assembly, con- 
sisting of all ranks of both sexes, bearing 
lighted wax tapers, to be afterward heaped 
as vows upon the different shrines. The 
walls of the ceilings, and every part of the 
building, are covered with the pictures of 
saints and martyrs. In the moment of our 
arrival, the doors were shut, and on the out- 
side appeared Plato, the archbishop, preceeded 
by banners and torches, and followed by all 
his train of priests, with crucifixes and cen- 
sors, who were making three times, in pro- 
cession, the tour of the cathedral, chanting 
with loud voices and glittering in sumptuous 
vestments bespangled with gold, silver and 
precious stones. The snow has not melted 
so rapidly in the cathedral within the Krem- 
lin as in the streets of the city. This mag- 
nificent procession was constrained, there- 
fore, to move upon planks over the deep mud 
which surrounded the cathedral. After com- 
pleting the third circuit, they all halted op- 
posite the great doors, which were all closed. 
The archbishop, with a censor, then scattered 
incense against the doors and over the priests. 



To the Volga. 139 



Suddenly, these doors were opened, and the 
effect was magnificent beyond description. 
The immense throng of spectators within, 
bearing innumerable tapers, formed two lines, 
through which the archbishop entered, ad- 
vancing with his train to a throne near the 
center. The profusion of lights, in all parts 
of the cathedral, and among others of the 
enormous chandeliers in the center, the rich- 
ness of the dresses, and the vastness of the 
assembly, filled us with astonishment." 



140 F^'om the Land of the Midnight Sun 



XL 



THE PALACE, WITH ITS TREASURES. THE LOASE 
MARKET. THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. 

OUR visit to the palace was an interesting 
one, as we pass through the different halls, 
.especially the Hall of St. George, founded by 
Catherine II., and dedicated to the order of 
St. George. The coat of arms of Russia is an 
effigy of St. George on a white horse. All 
these great halls are full of interesting his- 
torical relics and paintings. The crowns 
worn by the Emperors and Empresses are nu- 
merous and costly, especially the one made 
by order of Peter the Great for Catherine I., 
with its two thousand five hundred diamonds, 
besides other precious jewels. Among the 
valuable paintings is one of immense size, of 
Alexander I., entering Paris with his army, in 
1813. Near this is a fine marble statue of 
Napoleon, which causes to rush through the 
mind the wonderful events connected with 
the latter's march to Moscow, in 181 2, and the 
almost entire destruction of his army of fifty 







^*^"iiev(C*tt<y . ' 



A HALT OX THi-: HIGHWAY 



' 



To the Volga. 141 



thousand, and the next year the march of the 
Russians triumphantly into Paris. Among 
the old carriages, which are heavy, and quaint 
enough, is one presented by Queen Elizabeth, 
in 1580, to Czar Boris Godunof, whom she 
wanted to marry. We were shown the coro- 
nation chairs and robes, and canopy, (the lat- 
ter made of real gold cloth), of the present 
Emperor and Empress, and many others. 
Our guide informs us that at the coronation 
there were over a million of people present, 
and the utmost good order prevailed, and 
that it is said to have cost the government at 
least twenty million dollars. 

On account of the failure of the crops and 
the cattle disease in Russia, a great many 
peasants flock to Moscow, and we visited the 
Tolkatschta^ or Loase market, so called from 
the great number of poor, dirty people, who 
gather in a large square, where old clothes, 
old shoes, and the poorest of cast-off gar- 
ments, furniture, cooking utensils, etc., are 
sold, and where a dinner of dirty soup is fur- 
nished for two cents. We were told to divest 
ourselves of our watches, and everything of 
value, for a more God-forsaken crowd could 
not be found. We were glad to escape with 
our thumb and finger upon our nose, and 



142 From the Land of the Midnight Sim 

brush and shake ourselves well. It has be- 
come such a nuisance that the papers of Mos- 
cow are calling the attention of the city 
authorities to the effect it is having upon the 
sanitary condition of the city. Our guide 
was an intelligent Russian, who 'had lived in 
Buffalo, N. Y., and was a citizen of the United 
States. He showed me his passport, which has 
to be renewed every year, but the government 
has become so alarmed that they are about 
to cfompel all residents to become citizens of 
Russia or leave the country. The censorship 
of the press is very severe. All foreign papers 
are closely examined, and if any article ap- 
pears reflecting upon Russia, the papers are 
suppressed, or a block of ink is stamped upon 
the offensive sentence. In one of the papers 
which I got, a part of an article on Russia 
was stamped in black, obliterating every letter. 
The inconvenience of having a press cen- 
sorship is illustrated by some recent incidents 
in Russia. A newspaper, published in the 
Caucasus, has been compelled to suspend, be- 
cause its particular censor chose to move to 
a distant town, and to insist that proof sheets 
be sent him daily for his inspection, a con- 
dition incompatible with the prompt publica- 
tion of the paper. One of these lord censors 



I 



To the Volga. 143 



in St. Petersburg compelled a compiler of a 
small book on French literature to correct the 
clause, " La majeste de via natitre^'' on the ground 
that the word majesty should only be applied 
to the Czar. 

Russia has two great foundling hospitals, 
one at St. Petersburg and one in Moscow, 
probably the largest and most complete in 
the world. This hospital admits yearly about 
fifteen thousand children, and they are not 
left, as in the hospital which we visited in St. 
Petersburg, at the door, or handed to the 
nurse through the window, but taken to a 
room set apart for that purpose. No ques- 
tions are asked but ^' Has the child been bap- 
tized ? " and if so, " By what name?" The 
child is then registered in the books of the in- 
stitution, a number is assigned to it, which is 
worn around its neck, and figures on its cot, 
while a receipt, showing the same number, is 
given to the bearer of the child, in order to 
enable her to visit, or even to claim it, at any 
future period, up to the age of ten years. 
The child is then handed to its future foster 
parent, who happens to be first on the list 
among the uumber who are waiting in at- 
tendance. These women often deposit their 
own children at the hospital a few hours 



144 From the Land of the Mtdfiight Sun 



previous. They get about ten or twelve cents 
a day as nurses. After remaining in the in- 
stitution four weeks, and having been vac- 
cinated, they are sent with their nurses to the 
villages, where the latter belong. About 
fifty per cent of the children die in one year, 
owing to the severe climate and owing to the 
universal custom among the Russian peas- 
antry of leaving young infants alone, for sev- 
eral hours at a time, with the " soska," or kind 
of milk poultice at their mouths, to munch, 
which often chokes them. Russia is not be- 
hind any other nation in the world in her hos- 
pitals. The Grand Duchess of Russia, widow 
of George of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, maintains 
a dozen large hospitals in various towns, and 
is engaged in many public benevolent insti- 
tutions, and has lately established a new pri- 
vate eating-house for students in St. Peters- 
burg. She is the wealthiest woman in the 
world, and inherited her wealth from Cather- 
ine II. 



To the Volga. 145 



XII. 

THE PETROFSKI PALACE AT MOSCOW. THE 
JOURNEY TO NIJNI-NOVGOROD. THE PANO- 
RAMA OF THE OKA AND THE VOLGA. A 
GALA DAY. 

WE rode out to a Russian encampment, 
near the Petrof ski palace and park built 
by Catherine II. Napoleon retired to this place 
after the Kremlin became untenable. There 
were said to be sixty thousand soldiers in 
camp. When the officer of the day learned 
that we were Americans, he was exceedingly 
attentive to us, and took us through the 
encampment to the officers' quarters, kitchen, 
and to witness the drill. The soldiers were 
stout and robust, but did not look intelligent, 
and the animal seemed to preponderate. 
They receive only two copecks, or one cent a 
day for their services. Every able-bodied 
man in Russia, who has attained his twenty- 
first year, is obliged to serve in the army, and 
no substitutes are allowed. The regular 
period of service is fifteen years, six of which 



^Midnight Sun 



are spent in active service, and nine in the 
reserve. Russia has more than a million of 
men under arms. 

Our journey from Moscow to Nijni-Nov- . 
gorod, an ancient city founded in 1222, was 
interesting as giving us an opportunity to 
see the peasants and their villages, and this 
Asiatic town, with its motley crowd of Per- 
sians, Armenians, Tartars and Caucasians. 
We first take a carriage and drive about the 
city, and on our way across the bridge over 
the Volga we meet a large number of Asiatics, 
some on foot and some in vehicles, with their 
goods and camping stuff. A steamer has just 
arrived on the Volga from the Caspian Sea, 
and one thousand five hundred miles via 
Orenburg, at the lower end of the Ural 
Mountains and Central Asia. We get a 
splendid view of the city from Muzavief's 
tower, and a grand panorama of the Volga 
and Oka Rivers, with the forests of masts 
down the river as far as the eye can reach. 
The city is below us on both sides of the 
Volga, and although it has but fifty thousand 
inhabitants at this time, when the great 
annual fair is in operation it appears much 
larger, as the great number of shops and 
bazars extend over considerable space be- 



To the Volga. 147 



tween the Volga and Oka Rivers. A short 
distance from the tower is '' Othos," a terrace 
built by Emperor Nicholas, where there is a 
beautiful park, with flowers and seats, from 
which we get a distant view of the cultivated 
fields over which the Volga overflows in the 
spring, making the plains rich with fertile 
deposits. The Volga is covered with steamers 
and barges, and we are interested in the large 
number of Tartars, as they are engaged in 
unloading the products of different kinds for 
the fair. A large monument was erected here 
by the Emperor, dedicated to a patriotic 
butcher, *' Minin," who raised money to equip 
an army to drive away the Tartars who held 
possession of the city. We return to the fair, 
which was said to have been held here as long 
ago as the fourteenth century, and is visited 
sometimes by two hundred thousand to three 
hundred thousand persons, mostly Asiatics, 
and from eighty million to one hundred million 
dollars changes hands during the six weeks or 
two months the fair lasts. The ancient form 
of trade is still kept up, but will be super- 
seded by railroads and the establishment of 
banks, etc. Dealers are obliged to offer their 
goods here at regular times of holding the 
fair. The iron and other metals stored in 



148 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 



the miles of buildings have been brought 
here from the Ural Mountains and Siberia, at 
a great cost, for sale and distribution, within 
a few miles of their place of production. 
Dealers are obliged to buy large stocks, and 
get a credit of one or two years. This adds 
largely to the price, and in these times of 
small margins and great competition the 
more modern way of short time or cash sales 
must be resorted to, and the fair will be done 
away with, or change its peculiarity. Rail- 
roads already extend to the Ural Mountains. 
We were interested in examining the bazar, 
which contains such a variety of stones and 
minerals from Siberia, and silver made into 
different fancy articles from the Caucasian 
Mountains. Turks were here with their 
goods, and Tartars, and everything had an 
oriental appearance — silks and rugs from 
Persia. The articles made from malacite and 
lapis-lazuli, and other stones from Siberia, 
were numerous and beautiful, and a day 
spent in this bazar was full of intense interest, 
on account of the novel people and their pro- 
ductions, which one continually meets. The 
tea that one gets here is said to be superior, 
on account of its coming from China over- 
land, for it is claimed that all tea, notwith- 



To the Volga. 149 



standing all precaution, is deteriorated by 
crossing the ocean. The tea is all served 
with lemon, in glass tumblers ; a silver spoon 
is always in the glass, which is said to prevent 
the hot tea breaking the tumbler. 

It was a gala day at Nijni-Novgorod to- 
day, as Grand Duke Nicholas, brother of the 
Emperor, had a grand reception here, and 
the flags were flying, and everything pre- 
sented a gay appearance. He was here with 
his son and other officers of the army, under 
the charge of the Governor and chief of 
police. Five or six carriages in all would 
drive rapidly through the streets, and visit 
some of the large bazars of the fair, and 
away the masses would rush to get sight of 
him, and all day long the people were run- 
ning after him, whichever way he would go. 
After dining with the Governor (whose house 
is in the center of the fair, and the lower part 
occupied by a bazar for the sale of curious 
articles from Bokhara and other parts of Cen- 
tral Asia), he had a reception on the streets 
by two companies of Cossacks in their pecu- 
liar uniform, with spears or harpoons. The 
Cossacks may be very brave and dangerous, 
but they did not present a very attractive 
military appearance. 




150 From the Land of the Midtiight Sun 

Before leaving on the train I took a stroll 
down by the wharves, which are ten or twelve 
miles long, and all along I stop to look at the 
Tartars unloading and loading the curious- 
looking craft with grain, hides, wooden boxes, 
wine, skins from the Caucasus, madder and 
cotton from Bokhara, and almost every de- 
scription of merchandise peculiar to the East, 
and loading European goods. It was seven 
o'clock in the evening, and all were leaving 
their work to go to their suppers, and as they 
passed me, men and women, I never saw a 
more dirty, savage-looking set, and, being 
alone, I did not feel safe, and hurried to the 
station, meeting our guide looking for me, 
who had become alarmed at my absence, and 
some of the party did not quiet the ladies by 
their stories of people who had been knocked 
down and stripped by the Tartars on the out- 
skirts of the city only a day or two before. 

A great many gypsies who wander over the 
Eastern world were at the fair, and the sing- 
ing of some of the young w^omen in the res- 
taurants was entertaining, and showed con- 
siderable harmony and good voices. The out- 
skirts of the fair are more interesting than the 
center for observation and study. The con- 
stant succession of carts in long strings, the 



To the Volga. 151 



crowds of laborers, the knots of earnest-look- 
ing traders with long beards, the itinerant 
venders of liquid refreshments and white 
rabbit skins, the greasy, slovenly-looking 
monks collecting the copecks of those who 
fear to withhold their charity lest their trans- 
actions be influenced by the evil one, the fre- 
quent beggars, pleading for the most part 
that they have been burned out and showing 
the most dreadful-looking sores as evidence 
of their veracity — all these men and things 
attest the present importance of the fair of 
Nijni. The sales and purchases represent six- 
teen million sterling, which pass through the 
hands of one hundred and fifty thousand to 
two hundred thousand traders. The bakers 
are bound to make daily returns of the 
quantity of bread which they sell, and it 
is in this manner that a rough estimate of 
the daily population is made. Great quan.- 
titles of dried fish are sold at Nijni. Th^ 
annual value of the sturgeon alone taken 
in the Volga is estimated at two million five 
hundred thousand rubles. Fairs were held 
here as early as 1366, and tradition points to 
a still earlier origin. Great caravans are 
started from China, overland, which are six 
months to a year reaching Nijni-Novgorod. 



152 From the Laud of the Midnight Sun 



XIII. 

RETURN TO MOSCOW. THE HUTS AND VIL- 
LAGES. PEASANT LIFE. 



WE noticed on our return to Moscow the 
Russian villages with their huts made 
of logs and thatched roofs, out on the hot plains 
without a tree to shelter the people from the 
burning sun. Not a farm house is to be seen 
anywhere, but all huddled together — men, 
women, children, dogs, pigs and cattle. You 
cannot tell the huts of the human from the 
beast's. The peasants wear sheepskin clothes 
and shoes made of some kind of bark, and the 
women red cotton frocks, with scarlet or some 
bright colored handkerchief on their heads 
when they are in church, and look gay enough. 
There does not seem to be much encourage- 
ment for a peasant to be industrious and try 
to get ahead in the world, as the land belongs 
to the whole village and is all cultivated 
together on the communal system, and the 
village is responsible for the entire sum, 
which the commune has to pay annually into 



To the Volga. 153 



the imperial treasury. Each of these com- 
munes keeps a list of the male peasants for 
the purpose of direct taxation. The govern- 
ment pays no attention to the number of per- 
sons who may be born between the times of 
the various revisions till the new revision 
takes place. (Gogol, in his " Dead Souls," 
uses this fact as the groundwork of his work.) 
Every peasant who pays these taxes is sup- 
posed to have a share of the communal land, 
and the amount of tax imposed has nothing 
to do with the quality or quantity of the 
land, but is entirely personal. The commune 
has to pay into the imperial treasury a fixed 
yearly sum, according to the number of its 
revision souls, and distributes the land among 
its members as it thinks fit. The revision of 
the land takes place about every fifteen years, 
and the land is then distributed according to 
the number of persons which the family con- 
tains. This would naturally occur after each 
census. But the various changes brought 
about in each commune by the deaths, the 
births, and the migrations, compel the vil- 
lages to make the redistribution more fre- 
quently. In some districts they divide their 
lands yearly, while others do not do so till 
the lapse of two or more years. The richest 



154 From the Land of the Midnight Stm 



and best cultivated communes make redis- 
tribution of their lands less frequently than 
poorer ones. When the territory is vast, as 
in the northern provinces, the land is com- 
mon to many villages and constitutes a " ro- 
lost." Thus in the district of Olonetz, about 
six hundred villages are grouped in thirty 
communes. It is singular that even the Ger- 
man colonists on the banks of the Volga, 
although they received their lands in sever- 
alty, have united them under the communal 
system. There may arise a difficulty, because 
the active members of the various families 
would not be the same, and accordingly in 
some communes an attempt has been made to 
distribute the land according to the working 
powers of the families ; but the allotment de- 
pends upon the will of the particular com- 
mune. The authority of the particular com- 
munal parliament is final and supreme. No 
peasant challenges it, and the government 
never interferes. The village parliament is 
presided over by the village elder, whose 
house is marked out conspicuously among 
the others, and who wears as a badge of office 
a small medal suspended from the neck by a 
thin brass chain. The decisions of the com- 
munal parliament are generally made by 



To the Volga. 155 



acclamation, but whenever an ambiguity 
arises, it is settled in the Western fashion— by 
a division. The attempt to introduce voting 
by ballot into these assemblies by the govern- 
ment, about fifty years ago, resulted in a 
failure. The cottages (izba) of Russian 
peasants are built of wood, the beams being 
laid crosswise and the roof jutting out far be- 
yond the bases. The furniture is of a scanty 
description, and in addition to the chairs and 
tables there is a large '' peck " or stove, upon 
which the family sleep, and the sacred " ikon " 
in the corner of the room, with a lamp burn- 
ing before it, and every one who enters is ex- 
pected to cross himself and bow before it ; if 
this is not done it is considered a great mark 
of disrespect. The distribution of the meadow 
land takes place annually. The division of 
this and the arable land is performed by the 
peasants themselves, wdio invariably effect it 
with great accuracy. The minor rules with 
regard to the time and manner of cultivation 
of the land are all made subservient to the 
general advantage of the commune. For 
some of the above facts I am indebted to Mr. 
Mackenzie Wallace's work. It does not seem 
as if there would be any change from the 
communal system, as the law, since the serfs 



156 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 

were emancipated, allows the commune to be 
broken up into severalty, but very few vil- 
lages avail themselves of this permission. 
The system seems well adapted to the nature 
and habits of the Russian peasants, who are 
extremely ignorant, drunken and filthy, and 
only one in ten can read and write. 

The condition of the Russian peasant dur- 
ing the days of serfdom must have been a 
terrible one, judging from some accounts we 
get from various sources — not unlike the con- 
dition of slaves in this country. We are told 
of one lady who had been a great beauty in 
her day, and being unwilling that the world 
should become too much informed about the 
decay of her charms, constituted one of her 
serfs her perruquier (wig maker), and the un- 
happy man was kept in captivity, never being 
allowed to quit a certain room. He, how- 
ever, at length succeeded in making his es- 
cape, and the whole story became known. 
We read of women murdering their serfs, and 
one that was sentenced by the Empress 
Catherine to spend her life in a dungeon for 
her cruelties. Details are given of the terri- 
ble cruelties practiced by the nobles upon the 
serfs. 

Serfdom was established in Russia by Boris 




RUSSIAN PEASANT. 



I 



To the Volga. 157 



Godunof, who issued a decree about the year 
1600, forbidding peasants to leave the lands 
on which that date should find them. Earlier 
traces of it are found in the middle of the 
thirteenth century, during the Tartar domin- 
ion. The inhabitants of towns and villages 
were then forbidden to leave them without 
permission ; but the full and final attachment 
of the soil was not consummated until the 
close of the sixteenth century, Turgenief 
had a horror of serfdom, and left Russia to 
study in Germany. He writes: ''That life, 
that society, that sphere — if such an expres- 
sion may be used — to which I belonged, the 
sphere of serf-holding landowners, contained 
nothing to hold me to my country. On the 
contrary, almost everything that I saw around 
me aroused within me a sense of annoyance, 
contempt and dissatisfaction. I could not 
breathe the same air, I could not remain in 
the same environment with that which I ab- 
horred. It was necessary for me to withdraw 
at a distance from my enemy, in order to 
charge the more forcibly against him from a 
distance. In my eyes that enemy had a de- 
fined name — it was the right of serf-holding. 
Under this inscription I collected and con- 
centrated all that against which I resolved to 



158 From the Land of t/ie Midnight Sun 

fight to the last, with which I swore never to 
reconcile myself. This was my * Hannibal 
oath.' " Turgenief regarded the serf as " a 
strong and useful laborer, endowed with an 
instinctive sense of morality, but being iso- 
lated from the world, and unable to speak a 
word in his own behalf." The classes of no- 
bility, on the other hand, he considered as 
'' useless consumers of the peasant's labor, to 
which they were entitled by the chance of 
birth ; as demoralized by affluence and lazi- 
ness, as demoralizing all that came into con- 
tact with them." 



To the Volga. 159 



XIV. 

NIHILISM AND ITS POSSIBILITIES. TURGENIEF, 
THE NOVELIST. 

PROFESSOR MORFILL writes: " Tur- 
genief, the greatest of Russian novelists, 
in his powerfully written works, giving har- 
rowing descriptions of the miserable condi- 
tion of the Russian serfs, in his series of 
sketches called ' Memoirs of a Sportsman,' 
and a succession of able works reviewing all 
classes of Russian society, invented the word 
Nihilist," 

I have never read a more pathetic story 
than " The Gentleman's Retreat," and as 
some one says, " there are touches in it 
worthy of 'George Eliot." The great novelist 
died in Paris while we were in Russia, a great 
loss to Russia and to the world. He accom- 
plished for the emancipation of the serfs 
what Harriet Beecher Stowe did for the 
emancipation of five million slaves in our 
own country, and in his " Fathers and Chil- 
dren," and '* Smoke," Turgenief has grap- 



i6o From the La?id of the Midnight Sun 



pled with the nihilistic ideas, which have for 
a long time been so current in Russia. The 
spread of Nihilism so rapidly in Russia was 
caused, no doubt, by the emancipation of 
twenty-two million of the serfs, in 1861, by 
Alexander II., who liberated more human 
beings by his own power and free will than 
any other person. The nobles have hated 
the Czars ever since, for they hired out a vast 
number of the serfs, who were a great source 
of income to them, and this emancipation act 
deprived them of great sources of revenue 
The peasants and lower class of people were 
very much attached to their great liberator, 
and they never tire of looking at his uniform 
and sword, with the spots of blood upon 
them, which he wore when assassinated, which 
are exposed in a glass case in one of the 
churches in St. Petersburg. They would al- 
most tear any one in pieces who should say 
anything against the Czar. Nihilism, no doubt, 
is largely confined to the nobility, and to the 
students in the eight or ten colleges, who be- 
gin to understand that their liberties are 
taken from them by the autocrat of all the 
Russians, and that Russia is not advancing 
like the other nations of the world, and are 
becoming uneasy and dissatisfied, and there- 



To the Voha. i6i 



fore the frequent outbreaks among this class. 
In order to discuss properly the modern revo- 
lutionary movement in Russia, we must go 
back to Alexander Herzen, whom, however, 
it would be somewhat unfair to class among 
Nihilists, as he was a man of much more 
temperate character. Herzen was born in 
Moscow, in 1812, the son of a Russian noble- 
man. He early developed a taste for social- 
istic theories, and was a great student of the 
writings of Hegel. Having inherited a large 
property from his father, he resolved to quit 
'Russia, invested his money in foreign securi- 
ties, and took up his permanent residence in 
the west of Europe. In some most inter- 
esting papers, published in the Polar Star, 
in Russia, under the title of " The Past and 
My Thoughts," he has given rigorous sketches 
of the strange life which he led in intimate 
friendship with the leading political exiles, 
among others Kossuth and Orsini. He 
founded in London a Russian paper of 
democratic principles, called the Kolokol {The 
Bell). In a supplement, entitled " Under 
Judgment," minute details were given of 
cases of injustice and oppression on the part 
of the Government. These were ordinarily 
so accurate that it is impossible to doubt they 



1 62 FioDi tJie Land of the Midnight Sun 



must have been communicated by persons of 
high official position in Russia. It also circu- 
lated, to a great extent, in the country, but, 
of course, secretly. In spite of its democratic 
tone, it was always distinctly patriotic and 
Russian. In 1865 Herzen removed to Switzer- 
land, and died in 1870. He was the author 
of a great many works, besides conducting 
his journal, among them several novels, and 
any one reading them would conclude that 
Herzen was an honest man and a true patriot. 
Of a very different type was Michael Ba- 
kounin, who may be said in some sort to hav» 
been the founder of nihilism. He was born 
in 1814, of a wealthy Russian family, and 
early showed signs of insubordination. Thus 
having been gazetted in the Imperial Russian 
Guards, at the age of twenty-two, he was 
forced to leave the military service. At Mos- 
cow he joined a club of intelligent men, who 
were great students of the philosophy of 
Hegel. Among these were Herzen, Granovski, 
professor of history at the University of 
Moscow, and author of some valuable works, 
and Belinski, the genial critic, and other 
prominent scholars. In the year 1841 Bakou- 
nin went to Berlin, that he might study the 
doctrines of Hegel more thoroughly ; after- 



To the Volga. 163 



ward he removed to Paris, and having refused 
to return at the command of the Russian 
Government, was now an exile. He after- 
ward mixed himself up with the affairs of the 
revolution at Dresden, was arrested, and 
sentenced to death. This sentence was, how- 
ever, commuted to imprisonment for life. In 
1 85 1 he was surrendered to the Russian 
Government, and was imprisoned in the 
fortress of Petropovloski in St. Petersburg. 
His punishment was afterward mitigated by- 
banishment to Siberia ; he succeeded in 
making his escape in an American ship to 
Japan, and arrived in London in 1861. On 
his arrival in London he joined Herzen, and 
became one of his co-laborers on the Koiokoi, 
to which he communicated a much more 
rabid tone. In 1865 the office of the Kolokol 
was removed to Geneva, and here Bakounin 
plunged into the wildest socialism. He died 
in 1878, having been unceasing in his efforts 
to propagate nihilism. One of his agents, 
Nechaer, had deluged Russia with political 
pamphlets of extreme views. Nechaer's trial 
brought to light the fact that Bakounin had 
filled Russia — especially influencing young 
persons — with political papers of the wildest 
and most rabid kind ; he praised Karokasor, 



164 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 



who attempted the Czar's life in 1866, but de- 
precated further efforts at assassination, as 
the Czar miist be reserved for the judicial 
sentence of the people ; the aim of the revolu- 
tion was to be universal destruction ; " abso- 
lute void must be created, for if one old 
social form were left, it would be an embryo 
out of which all the other forms would renew 
themselves," 



To tJic Volga. 165 



XV. 

THE SOCIALISTIC PRESS. THE ORGAN OF THE 
INSTITUTION. TOLSTOI AND THE SUPERIOR 
COUNCIL. THE END. 

1 THINK there is now a Russian socialistic 
press in Geneva, which is very active. Many 
articles appear in the Little Russian language, 
especially in a magazine entitled '"^Gromaslny 
The Nihilists are extremely active, and we 
can hardly take up a daily paper but we read 
accounts of assassinations and murders. The 
policy of the government appears to be to 
suppress, as much as possible, the doings of 
the Nihilists. Many are sent off to Siberia, 
without trial, or without it being known. It 
would seem that they are a misguided, des- 
perate class of men, and that nothing can be 
accomplished by such unwise measures as as- 
sasssination, but to unsettle the affairs of 
Russia and cause an immense expense by 
keeping so large a number engaged in pro- 
tecting the country from their dastardly 
deeds. No person is allowed to go in or out 



1 66 From the Land of the Midnight Sun 



of Russia without a passport, and every news- 
paper is examined, and on every article that 
criticises the government, or says anything 
about Nihilism, a block of ink is stamped 
across the objectionable words. All of this 
espionage must keep an immense number of 
officials employed, and it would seem that 
financial ruin would come upon the country 
in time, on account of the enormous expenses. 
During the last ten years no less than one 
hundred and sixty-five thousand prisoners 
have been transported to Siberia, many of 
them without any trial, by simple order or 
resolution of the commune, never having even 
seen a judge, on suspicion, perhaps, of being 
Nihilists. Twenty years ago the exiles 
traversed on foot all the distance between 
Moscow and the place to which they were 
dispatched ; now they go part of the way on 
foot, in wagons, and on special barges, or 
floating prisons, which are overcrowded, and 
are usually kept in such filthiness that disease 
is created. Diptheria and typhus fever kill 
adults and children, especially the latter. 
Corpses of children are thrown out at nearly 
every station. When the season and state of 
the river permits, parties of five hundred con- 
victs, each with women and children, leave 



To the Volga. 167 



the Tomsk prison every week, and begin 
their foot journey to Irkutsk and Tranchaita- 
lin. The suffering is terrible, and their num- 
ber is increasing every year. 

The Czar convened the Superior Council 
on the loth of March for the purpose of con- 
sidering the social question. They con-^ 
sidered the question whether there really ex- 
ists a powerful Nihilist party, and if so, what 
their wants, and how to satisfy or crush 
them, as the demands of the country may re- 
quire. The council was composed of repre- 
sentatives of the ruling classes, including 
Count Tolstoi, minister of the interior, Lieu- 
tenant-General Tchernaieff, General Ignatieff 
and Miljutine, M. Abassa, and all the heads 
of the administrative departments. 



APPENDIX. 



THE PEASANTS OF RUSSIA. 

The peasants of Russia are a superstitious class from the cradle 
to the g-rave. Charms, incantations and mystic remedies in the 
case of disease are common. A feast is held in Russia on the occa- 
sion of a death, but also on many other stated days the dead and 
ancestors of the village are commemorated. Even the nobles used 
to have a noise made outside the house to keep the evil spirits off. 
Up to this day the old women cross themselves in orthodox fashion 
on the railway trains as soon as the cars start. The nobility of 
Russia have been so brought under the western European influ- 
ences that one can not see in them the anomalous characteristics of 
the Scythians or Slavonians, as among the peasantry. They are 
a contented, docile, sturdy race, and, as were the race from which 
they descended, are brave, as has been proved on many a battle- 
field. Sir Henry Havelock bears testimony to the virtues and 
bravery of the Russian soldier. No country can show greater 
heroism than they exhibited amid the horrors of Shipka pass. 
With all their heroism they are servile and terribly given to 
drunkenness. Probably they are the most drunken people in the 
world. The ordinary beverage is a kind of fermented barley 
(kvas), somewhat sour, but by no means disagreeable to the palate, 
and a coarse kind of corn brandy called " vocka." 

According to an old work, " It is a custom over all Muscovie 
that a maid in time of wooing sends to that suitor whom she choos- 
eth for her husband, such a whip curiously wrought by herself, in 
token of her subjection unto him." Another Russian writer also 
tells us that it was usual for the husband on the wedding day to 



II From the La fid of the Midnight Sun 



pfive his bride a gentle stroke over the shoulders with his whip, to 
show his power over her. In some story it is related that a wife 
complained to her husband that he did not love her ; but upon his 
expressing surprise at the doubt, she gave as a reason that he had 
never beaten her ! The bridegroom knew nothing of his bride. 
She was only allowed to be seen a few times before marriage by 
his female relatives, and on these occasions all kinds of tricks were 
played. A stool was placed under her feet that she might seem 
taller, or a handsome female attendant or a better looking sister 
were substituted. "Nowhere," says one writer, " is there such 
trickery practiced with reference to brides as at Moscow." 

A Nihilist in Moscow told me that he had given up trying to 
accomplish anything by assassination ; indeed, he did not see how 
any change could be brought about so long as all the peasants are 
contented with their lot and never desire to better their condition 
by leaving Russia for America or any other country. I do not 
remember ever to have seen but one Russian who had become an 
inhabitant of this country. 

Russia seems to be taking pride in her own language and litera- 
ture, and instead of imitating the French, they are developing a 
vigorous individuality, and has a brilliant prospect for her lan- 
guage, and is fast absorbing the Finish dialect, the Polish and 
Lithunian. 



II. 



MARRIAGE IN RUSSIA. 



The Russian merchant, the citizen of Odessa, retains to this 
day some of the ancient customs of his fore-fathers. The primitive 
character of Russian nationality has to battle hard against the in- 
fluence of European civilization. Family influence, and especially 
that of the home circle, however, still exists in full force. Father 
and mother have complete moral authority over their children of 
both sexes, no matter how old the latter may be. This authority 
shows itself principally in the words and actions of the father. 
He conducts his household as he pleases, and among the trading 
class it is very rare indeed to hear of a son or daughter acting in 
opposition to a father's will. In general the father is feared and 



To the Volga. iii 



respected, the mother respected and loved. Nowhere is home life 
—the intimate family life— so fully developed as in Russia, and 
that more particularly in the class which is here called merchant 
citizen. 

The father, therefore, decides the marriage of his children, and 
what he requires before all else is that the future wife or husband 
should belong to the orthodox Greek Church and have a good rep- 
utation. Young men may marry at eighteen, young girls at six- 
teen. Whether the future pair know each other or not, there is 
always a match- maker engaged to make the overtures and to carry 
on the negotiations on this delicate subject. "Popping the ques- 
tion " is a profession that requires a great deal of art and intelli- 
gence in the person who exercises it. In the first place a match- 
maker must be a widow, not younger than thirty-five years, and 
not older than fifty. She must be lively, good looking and full of 
fun and wit. It is quite indispensable that she should have the 
"gift of gab," that, as the Russian proverb has it, she need not 
feel for her words in her pocket. A match-maker ought to know 
everything, without showing it. Very often the match-maker is 
the widow of a priest. After the death of her husband, when she 
sets up in her profession, she is sure to have a large number of cus- 
tomers, both rich and influential, to help her on in any difficulties, 
particularly if her husband, during his lifetime, had acquired ihe 
love and respect of his parishioners in the exercise of his ministry. 
St. Petersburg, or any other large Russian city, seldom either 
hates or despises the priest. The " white " or secular clergy are, 
generally speaking, well instructed and well read, and lead a sober 
and laborious life, devoting their whole time to the duties imposed 
upon them by the church. Constantly under the eyes of the Holy 
Synod of the Emperor himself and of the whole of Europe, even if 
they do not possess all the qualities necessary to constitute them 
good ministers, they take care to be outwardly all that they 
should be. 

THE MATCH-MAKER. 

The match-maker is the intimate friend of all parents who have 
children to marry and of young lovers of both sexes. She is always 
on the outlook, and knows how to guess the inclination of her cus- 



From the Land of the Midnight Si/n 



tomcrs and the best time to commence operations. The custom is 
that neither the parents nor the younsf people should show that the 
latter desire to contract a marriage ; in fact, they pretend entire 
ig^norance on the subject. " Well, Ivan Ivanitch," says the match- 
maker to the father, " you have the jijoods and I have the buyer ; 
do you not think it is time to find a place for Machinka ? Come 
St. Alexander's Day (the holy man) she will have attained her 
tenth year, with six added to her. What say you?" " Why, I 
don't say no if my daughter says yes. Speak to her. It is her 
business, not mine. I am an old man now, and have forgotten all 
about these sorts of things." Now, the match-maker knows very 
well that Machinka is in love with the young Andevrimkoff, her 
uncle's clerk. " Come, Ivan Ivanitch, the thing is very well as it 
is; Machinka won't say no, you'll see." "Very well," says the 
old man, "tell me who is the predestined engaged one ? Who is 
he? the brave fellow, and where is he?" "Guess," says she. 
The old man names all the young men he knows without ever 
mentioning the right one, although he is perfectly aware all the 
time who he is ; but such is the usage. At last the match-maker 
names him and adds: "Marriages are made in heaven, you 
know." 

When all this is settled they send for the mother, and the same 
scene is repeated, with this difference^ — that she bursts into tears 
when she gives her consent. And now takes place the third scene 
of tlie first act. The young lady is sent for. The match-maker 
begins by making a long speech, in which she describes the happi- 
ness of the marriage state, particularly the quiet happiness of the 
young lady's own parents ; speaks of the blessings of God that had 
evidently been bestowed upon them in the gift of children. She 
then continues to tell of the pleasures of becoming a mother, of 
parental love and of the way in which the young lady's parents 
had brought up their daughter, and concludes by a serious exhor- 
tation to respect and obey her parents. All this time Machinka is 
standing before the tribunal, listening with downcast eyes and 
blushing cheeks. The foregoing scenes are then acted over again, 
and Machinka does not succeed any more than her parents in find- 
ing out the young gentleman's name. At last the match-maker 
declares it. If he is accepted by the young lady she throws her- 
self at her parents feet and declares she never wishes to leave 



To the Volga. 



them, but that, if it is her destiny, she is willing to desire their 
blessing. 

The father then sends for the members of his household, even to 
the janitor of the building ; all sit down and remain perfectly still 
for a moment ; they then rise, say a prayer mentally, making the 
sign of the cross, and the father declares to all present that his 
daughter is asked in marriage ; that she has accepted the offer 
because she believes it to be her destiny and the will of God ; 
finally he gives her his blessing. All then congratulate the parents 
of the young lady. Everybody sheds tears at the thought of the 
separation and bowing leave the room. 

The family now remain alone with the match-maker to treat of 
the marriage outfit ; the parents ask what the young man has, 
although they know very well ; but it is the custom. Then the 
match-maker begins: "Well, Ivan Ivanitch, you give the princi- 
pal bundle of goods, but what do you give into the bargain ? " 
" Hum ! " says the old man, " the goods I furnish are so good that 
I consider anything else useless. Let us first know what the future 
husband has." The match-maker then mentions, one after the 
other, everything the gentleman is to bring towards housekeeping. 
The father listens and enumerates all he is to give his daughter, 
and begins thus : " A large double bed, complete." The match- 
maker says; " It is the custom;" the young lady blushes, the 
mother sighs. The father continues: " Two marten sable cloaks, 
one of fox fur, fifteen Lyons silk and satin dresses, ten real Paris 
bonnets, twelve pairs of shoes, three chemises, one nightgown and 
one petticoat," etc. After many observations on both sides, every- 
thing is concluded. The day is appointed for the young couple to 
be presented to each other. They then separate. The next day 
the bride's family go to church to give thanks for the marriage in 
prospect, which they must now make known to their friends and 
relations. 

THE FIRST KISS. 

When the bridegroom is presented the whole house is in confu- 
sion. All the relations, friends and neighbors on both sides are in- 
vited to the house of the bride. When all the expected company 
are assembled the match-maker comes in, leading the bridegroom 



VI From the Land of the Midnight Sun 



by the hand, and going straight to the head of the house, presents 
him. The father first, then the mother, kisses him. The bride's 
father then leads the young man to a table covered with a white 
cloth. On the table is a silver salver, with a loaf of bread on it, 
and on the bread a salt-cellar, with salt. Two rings— one of gold, 
the other of silver— are placed on a small silver tray before a gol- 
den image of the Virgin Mary, holding the Child Jesus in her arms. 
With this image they bless the future couple. All the company 
stand, the mother holding the bride, completely dressed in white, 
by the hand, surrounded by all her dearest friends and compan- 
ions. All bow before the image. The father takes the image, the 
mother the bread and salt ; the young couple then kneel under the 
image, and are first blessed by the father, the latter then takes the 
bread and salt from the hands of the mother and gives her the 
image, and the same ceremony is repeated. After this the father 
and mother of the bridegroom do the like. Then comes the giving 
of the rings ; the bride's father gives the golden ring to the bride- 
groom, the silver one to the bride. They are now affianced to 
each other, and give each other the first kiss. When the ceremony 
is over, the company enjoy themselves ; they chat, laugh, eat and 
drinlf, and separate after having fixed the day for the marriage. 
During the interval between the ceremony and the marriage the 
bridegroom spends all his evenings with his bride, often tete-a- 
t^te. 

THE CEREMONY. 



Then follows the marriage ceremony. It is also called the coro- 
nation, because, during the ceremony, a crown is placed on the 
heads of the affianced. Then the priest offers them a cup of wine, 
of which they both drink, as a sign of the union they have con- 
tracted. A solemn procession is led by the officiating priest, the 
bride and bridegroom following him round the desk placed in the 
center of the church, upon which is laid the Bible. This is meant 
to represent the joys which await them, the ties which they con- 
tract and the eternity of these ties. During the public celebration 
of the marriage the rings worn by the young people are exchanged, 
the husband now wearing the silver one, the bride the golden. 
From the church the company is invited to the house of the bride- 



To the Volga. vil 



groom's father. A week after they return to church, when the 
priest lifts the crown from their heads. This is the final consecra- 
tion of marriage. 

All the clergy that assisted at the blessing in the church expect 
to partake of the marriage feast. When rich merchants marry 
their children they spare nothing to make the ceremony splendid. 
Generally the carriage that takes them to the church is gilt, and 
drawn by four, sometimes six, horses — beautiful dappled grays. 
The marriage over, the bride is taken home to her new family. 
The coachman and the postillions are often richly dressed in azure 
velvet, with gold or gilt buttons ; their belts and the ribbons 
streaming from their hats are all gold galoons. The rems of the 
horses, as well as their manes, are dotted with bunches of pink 
and blue ribbons ; two huge men servants, with round hats, livery 
coats and knee-breeches, dazzling with blue and gold, are perched 
behind the carriage. This equipage hired for the occasion, costs 
not less than $200, but custom will have it so. 

THE FEAST. 

The banquet is ordered at some fashionable confectioner's. 
Nothing is wanting — silver, crystal, flowers and lusters laden with 
candles of the purest wax. The most perfect order reigns at these 
repasts. The finest wines flow in abundance, and music plays 
from time to time during the whole repast. The young married 
pair occupy seats about the middle of the table, the parents sup- 
porting them on both sides— the rest of the company take seats ac- 
cording to the degree of relationship or rank. If they want a very 
grand dinner, they order a "General's" dinner, which costs $30 
more than an ordinary one. At this dinner, so ordered, the master 
of ceremonies invites a real old pensioned off General, who is 
received with all the reverence due to his rank, and seated in the 
place of honor. He is the first to drink the health of the young 
couple, and is always helped before any one else. He never speaks 
unless it is absolutely necessary. He is there only for show, and 
he does his best, in return for the $20 paid him for his presence, to 
eat and drink as much as he can. He is accosted, when helped to 
anything, arack or wine, as your Excellency. He never refuses a 
single dish of all the thirty or more served on such occasions. 



VI II From the Land of iJic Mid nig Jit Sun 



These dinners are always served after the French fashion. As the 
last roast disappears from the table, the champagne corks fly, the 
glasses are filled to the brim, the music strikes up, and huzzahs 
resound from all parts. But here comes the bride's father, with 
glass in hand, going up to her bowing, and making a most woeful 
face, saying that his wine was so bitter that he could not drink it 
until she had sweetened it. Aftcra great deal of pressing she rises 
and gives her husband a kiss ; her father still pretends that his 
wine is bitter, and it remains so until she has given her husband 
three kisses ; each kiss not only sweetens his wine, but is accom- 
panied with roars of laughter and bursts of applause. After dinner 
comes the ball and " general's walk." They lead him through all 
the rooms once every half hour, everybody salutes him as he 
passes along and he graciously replies by an inclination of the head. 
At last, at 3 o'clock in the morning, all the young girls and those 
who dressed the bride take her away, to undress her and put her 
to rest ; the men do the same by the husband. The next morning 
the house of the newly married couple is again filled with the 
crowds of the evening before. The young wife is seated in a 
drawing-room on a sofa with a splendid tea service before her. 
One after the other approaches, salutes her and asks: " Have you 
slept well, madam? Do you feel rested after the fatigues of the 
last night ? " She then offers tea, coffee or chocolate, according to 
the taste of the visitor. She is throned for the first time in all 
splendor as the mistress of the house. The most intimate friends 
remain to spend the day with the young pair. A week after the 
marriage the wife's family gives a series of dinner parties, evening 
parties and balls. These fetes sometimes last for a fortnight, or 
even three weeks or a month, and so the young people gradually 
subside into their ordinary every-day life. 



III. 



HOW THE RUSSIANS KEEP WARM. 



Ihe Russians have a great knack of making their winter pleas- 
ant. You feel nothing of the cold in those tightly built houses 
where all doors and windows are double, and where the rooms are 
kept warm by big stoves hidden in the walls. There is no damp in 



2^0 the Voliui. 



IX 



a Russian house, and the inmates may dress indoors in thfe lightest 
gards. which contrast oddly with the mass of furs and wraps they 
don when going out. A Russian can afford to run no risk of 
exposure when he leaves the house for a walk or drive. He cov- 
ers his head and ears with a fur bonnet, his feet and legs with felt 
boots lined with wool or fur, which are drawn over the ordinary 
boots and trousers, and reach up to the knees ; he next cloaks him- 
self in a top coat with a fur collar, lining and cuffs ; he buries his 
hands in a pair of fingerless gloves of seal or bear skin. Thus 
equipped, and with the collar of his coat raised all around so that 
it muffles him up to the eyes, the Russian exposes only his nose to 
the cold air ; and he takes care frequently to give that organ a little 
rub to keep the circulation going. A stranger who is apt to forget 
the precaution, would often get his nose frozen if it were not for 
the courtesy of the Russians, who will always warn him if they 
see his nose " whitening," and will, unbidden, help him to chafe it 
vigorously with snow. In Russian cities walking is just possible 
for men during the winter, but hardly so for ladies. The women 
of the lower order wear knee boots ; those of shopping class sel- 
dom venture out at all ; those of the aristocracy go out in sleighs. 
The sleighs are by no means pleasant vehicles for nervous people, 
for the Kalmuck coachmen drive them at such a terrific pace that 
they frequently capsize. 

RUSSIAN FIxNANCES. 

The Russian budget was never known to show a surplus. That 
of 1882, just made public, shows a deficit of nearly $4,000,000, which 
is, however, an improvement over formey; years. The expenditures 
for railroads during the year was about $12,000,000, incurred by 
the pushing of the system of Russia proper into the Russian pos- 
sessions in Turkestan. Of the total expenditures of $355,580,000, 
the army and navy consumed §117,000,000, which, considering the 
vastness of the forces kept up, is lower than the cost of our own 
military and naval forces. The, Russian revenue has fallen off in 
respect to the tax on alcoholic liquor, very largely owing to the 
decrease in consumption following the increase of the tax on liquors 
forty per cent. Usually the receipts from this source are about 
$i2o,ooo,oo'j, and they have fallen off one-third. For many years 
the Russian police were employed forcing the people to spend 



From the Laud of tJic Midni^^Jit Sun 



their money in tlic brandy shops ami j^cl drunk, so that tlie jjovcrn- 
mcnt might be benefited by the revenue. Prince Dolg^oroukoflf 
relates that he had seen poHcemen dragging people by main force 
into the liquor shops to get them drunk. That is an original way 
of securing revenue for the Czar's government. The Russian 
finances were very much disordered by the war with Turkey, which 
cost $6oo,cxx>,ooo or $700,000,000, and was accompanied by vast issues 
of paper currency which depreciated rapidly. The public debt of 
Russia is believed to be about $2,000,000,000, and is not probable 
that it will be reduced, as Russia is not likely to abandon the old 
Petrine policy of possessing a Mediterranean littoral, which in- 
volves European war, and she is at a continual and increasing 
expence, strengthening her power and lines of communication 
from the Ural mountains to the Pacific ocean— an empire vast and 
full of resources, wicli some day will overshadow Russia in Europe 
in importance. 

DURATION OF LIFE IN RUSSIA. 

The paucity of medical men in Russia, writes a correspondent, 
and the habits of the rural population combine to make the Russian 
death rate the highest in Europe. Excepting the two capitals, 
where there are many German physicians, there is no district in the 
empire sufficiently supplied with doctors. According to the latest 
leturns, the average duration of life in Russia is only twenty- 
six years. The mortality among infants is frightful. More 
than sixty per cent die before they reach their fifth year. Nearly 
two million children perish every year. Of eight million boys, 
only three million seven^hundred and seventy thousand attain the 
age of military service — that is to say, their twenty-fifth year ; and 
of these at least one million are found, by reason of shortness of 
stature and weakness of body, unfit for military duty. 

RAILROADS IN RUSSIA. 



Many officials there are at &<^ry station dressed in uniforms. 
The railroads are owned by the government, and it seems as if 
every country would be ruined by the numerous officials. Rail- 
roads are extending all over Russia, and the Czar has extensive 
plans according to accounts on hand, with the Czar as its most en- 
thusiastic promoter. The proposal is to build eleven thousand 



To the Volo-a. xi 



seven hundred miles of railroad in two trunk lines, one starting 
from lekaterinenberg on the eastern slope of the Ural mountains 
and running through Siberia to Yakutak and Nikolajen, with a 
branch connecting with China and the region of the Amoor river ; 
while the second line is to begin at Astrachan, connect with Persia, 
Herat in Afghanistan and India, and have a branch to Bokhara and 
by way of Kashgar to Central Asia. The idea is to employ the 
army in the construction of the roads '\w times of peace, and it is 
judged that the work will occupy twenty years. There is thus no 
need of immediate worry as to Russia's object in undertaking so 
stupendous a task, if it really seriously contemplates it. It defines 
its own purpose as the development of its agriculture and com- 
merce by a net-work of railroads like that of the United Slates. 
The people who are continually foreseeing Russia's seizure of India 
from Great Britain are, however, already declaring that this pro- 
ject has a strategic significance ; that it is of a piece with the Mery 
country, and that the Pacific part of the scheme is but a blind to 
facilitate the construction of a railroad south which would permit 
the quick concentration of large bodies of troops upon Afghanistan, 
Persia and Asiatic-Turkey. 

In 1882 Russia's expenditure for railroads was twelve millions of 
dollars, incurred by pushing the system of Russia proper into the 
Russian possessions in Turkestan. 



WELCH, FRACKER COMPANY'S 



Recent Ptcblications. 




-^Jr 



From "IN WESTERN LEVANT." 



THE MASTERPIECE OF THE BOOK-MAKER'S ART. 



NOW READY 

In M/^estern Levant 



FRANCIS C. SESSIONS 

President of the Ohio Archceological and Historical Society 




With over Fifty Vignette Illustrations by 

HENRY W. HALL 

Printed on Warren coated paper, title page in colors, exquisitely 
bound, with parchment label title, gilt top, etc. 

Author, artist, and designer have combined successfully to make 

this the most superb product of exclusively American talent 

that has yet been placed upon the market. 

lamo. Cloth, Si.so. post-paid. 



INTO MOROCCO 

FROM THE FRENCH OF 
PIERRE LOTI. 

ILLUSTRATED BY 

Benjamin Constant and Aime Morot. 
I2I110, Cloth, $1.25. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE PRESS. 

" The hit of the year ! " — State Jourtml. 

" Full of color, picturesqueness and charming descrip- 
tion." From I'oliiDin review in N. Y. Ti-ihtate. 

" A famous book." — New Orleans Picayune. 

" Rising- from the perusal of these sparkling pages, the 
reader feels as if under the lingering influence of some wild 
dream,"— /^row a tJtree-coliniin review in tJie Hartford 
Times. 

" A very clever and readable volume by one of the most 
unhackneyed, entertaining and imaginative of living 
writers." — N. V. Sun. 

■' ' Into Morocco ' is vivid in rich wora-coloring, and every 
page charms with its quaint attractiveness." — San Fran- 
cisco Post, 



♦* Loti's account of travel into the interior of that country 
by no means lessens the feeling of mystery, but rather en- 
hances it. He seems to have pursued his researches in a 
sort of dream, and while observing^ closelj' and describing 
clearly all he saw and heard, yet conveys throughout his 
book that same atmosphere of unreality and delicious lan- 
guor, and one lays the book down with a sigh at having 
completed its perusal, and with the brain filled with visions 
of white-robed veiled figures, tents, hot, sandy deserts, and 
long trains of silently moving camels. It is an enchanting 
book, and the picturesque illustrations add not a little to its 
charms. — Aft'lwa ukee Seiitjucl. 

** Only those who are familiar with the deep poetic feel- 
ing and power of description of Pierre Loti, can obtain any 
conception of the character of this book without reading it. 
Readers who love the romantic, will be delighted with the 
book." — Cleveland Leader. 

" Loti is, above all else, a literary colorist, and the pic- 
tures are wonderfully warm, sensuous and glowing." — 
Chicago Times. 

"Mr. Loti has an artist's eye for the picturesque."— 
Mihva ukee Wisconsin . 

'* Rich in quotable extracts, for on every page is a pic- 
ture worth impressing on the memory for its beauty. It is 
vivid and inspiring. — Chronicle, San Francisco. 

" A famous book, intensely interesting, beautifully illus- 
trated." — New Orleans Picayune. 

" Delightful reading." — Toledo Blade. 

" Sure of welcome. It is a series of emotions deeply felt, 
e.xquisitely translated."— .S^i-^^iM Transcript. 

" Full of charm ; not an effect is lost. We wish we had 
space to quote at fuller length from this fascinating book." 
— Boston Literary M'orld. 

" One of the most fascinating books of travel that has ap- 
peared this year." — The IVriter, Boston. 

" A book of sunshine." — Chicago Herald. 




;^^-v^\n£K--- 



Frum "THE BANK TRAGEDY.' 



Tbe Delightful Tale of Frencl] Life and Maijrjers 



E X P I A T I O N 



By TH. BENTZON 



ADMIRABLY TRANSLATED 



J 2 mo. jj" cents. 



" Far ahead of [its fellows in theme and general treat- 
ment." — World Herald^ Omaha. 

'■ Attractive, clear, smooth and free. The interest deep- 
ens."— r/w^".?, Chicago. 

" A charming novel, and a welcome addition to the store 
of first-class works."— yl/^rw/w^ Chroiticle. 

" A beautiful example of life displayed. The plot is in- 
teresting, and characters strongly drawn."— C/;zVa^^ Tri- 
bune. 

" An admirable story.'"—All>any A rgus. 

" Charming and graceful." — Boston Literary World. 

" It will be found delightful'" — Geyer's Stationer. 




;-ip?. 



A FLORENTINE CHURCH. 

}^ro»i " Oh the irins Th>ONgk EuroJ-e.' 



" On the Wing through Europe, by F. C. Sessions, 
Esq.. is a modest and well written account of what a less 
accurate man would not have seen, and a clearly given de- 
scription of what a sensible and thoughtful pair of eyes did 
see in Europe. The e.xceedingly good taste, which is evi- 
dent on every page, is added to full and complete mention 
of what one most wants to read about, and yet finds so little 
written about, as related to these topics. The binding is in 
harmony with the plan and execution of the whole volume." 
— Home Jon rnal. 

" They are written with a remarkable grace, ease and 
clearness of style. His mind quickly seizes the salient 
points of interest and besides penetrates into regions not so 
often described by the ordinary traveler. It is a very inter- 
esting and instructive little book, and reveals the author 
as a man of vigorous intellect, keen observation, deep sym- 
pathy and excellent powers of description." — Adams^ Mass., 
Transcript. 

" While written modestly, simply and with no effort at 
vivid description, it does more to place the scenes, incidents 
and historic associations of a tour through the British Isles 
and on the continent of Europe before the reader intelli- 
gently, than any similar work we have ever seen. The 
engravings are fine, and two letters of Rev. Dr. Hutchins 
on famous English Divines, add greatly to the value of 
the book." — Cincinnati Herald. 

" The letters are well written, and the descriptions of 
scenery, incidents, etc., are peculiarly interesting, showing 
that Mr. Sessions has been a careful observer. * * * 
The book is an exceedingly handsome one in printing 
and binding, and the elegant illustrations it contains add 
very much to its value and interest. We can cordially com- 
mend the work to our readers. It should have a very large 
and general circulation." — Dispatch. 



" It is entirely unpretentious, and written in a lively and 
pleasing style. A breezy freshness and evident sincerity 
pervade its pages, and it is pleasant to learn what an unpre- 
tentious writer can make out of the old cities and time- 
honored buildings, the ancient rookeries and much-travelled 
thoroughfares of these older lands. The printed text shows 
good taste, and the illustrations add to its value."— CArAy /■- 
ian at Work. 

" On the Wing through Europe is the title of just such a 
journal of a flying tour of Europe, during the year of the 
Paris Exposition, as we might expect from almost any one 
of our clear-headed and sensible men of business v/riting for 
the entertainment of friends at home. Lively, concise, 
straightforward, touching lightly but intelligently upon a 
multiplicity of topics, without falling into sentimentality on 
the one hand, or lapsing into a too prosaic literalness on the 
other, it is an agreeable and unaffected record of impressions 
of travel. Its author's brief descriptions of phases of 
transatlantic life, manners, customs, and scenes, and of me- 
morable places and buildings, are distinguished by the busi- 
ness man's faculty for close and sharp observation of men 
and things, and of arriving at rapid and generally just con- 
clusions concerning them."— //^r/^r'^ Monthly. 

" The vast material upon which the traveler had to work 
is certainly attractively and instructively used in the narrow 
limits to which he confined his writing. Not the least at- 
traction of the work is the series of twenty fine engravings, 
certainly the finest illustrations ever published in a work 
of this kind."— T'/w^i- 

" A series of very sprightly and readable letters to the Ohio 
State Journal^ and we must say that they have lost nothing 
of their freshness and interest by reappearing in book form. 
We are reading it with great pleasure. The mechanical 
execution of the work — as shown in letter-press and en- 
gravings—is excellent— very creditable to the taste of the 
publishers."— 5/ir/«_gy?(f/ar Republic. 



iv^mr^t-'^'^v 




H S 




From "IN WESTERN LEVANT 



NO^W ItlEAOY, 



BY WHOSE HAND? 

A NOVEL 

By EDITH SESSIONS TUPPER, 

A uthor of ''''By a Hair^s Breadth ^^ etc, 

MOEE STIEEING, CLEVER A-MD VIGOEOUS THAN EVEN HEE 
PEEVIOUS SUCCESSFUL NOVELS. 

I21I10, Paper, 35 Cents. 



ADVANCE NOTICES : 

" Editn Sessions Tupper's latest novel, ' By Whose 
Hand,' 1 . distinct advance on her previous work in firm- 
ness of to* ch and method of treatment of her subject. The 
skill in plctmaking virhich the author manifests in a marked 
degree, i, akes the novel a fascinating one for those who 
wish to p'-ruse a work of fiction which will hold the atten- 
tion to the last paragraph. As a novelist, Mrs. Tupper im- 
proves wi.h each work." — N. V. Press. 

" An original romance. The sedate reader (if any such 
remaip"* ill find the story somewhat emotional, but will 
acknovvlt,Jge its animation." — Brooklyn Times. 

" The authoress has an imagination which is always 
vivid, and sometimes picturesque."— Art^^ Field's Wash- 
' -HP-ton. 



JVST PVBI.ISHED 



A PORTRAIT IN CRIMSONS 



■I hriiylit ami inUrhiittim^ Drama-uovcl. 



CHARLES EDWARD BARNS. 

AW- 




Delicately printed on antique laid, bound in parch- 
ment paper, etc. i2mo. 35 cents. 

Will be 7uidely read and enjoyed by all readers of 
this successful author. 




'rom "AS 'TIS IN LIFE." 




From "AS 'TIS IX IJFE. 



A STERLING NOVEL 



The Ctiicag:o Tribune I»rize Story. 

By a Hair s Breadth, 

By Edith Sessions Tupper. 
read what the press has to say of it. 

" Her undoubted talents are of such an order that she may 
reasonably expect to attain high rank among the fictionists 
of her time." — Chicago Hera/d. 

" The authoress of this work is a bright and rising nov- 
elist."— iV^. F. Press. 

" The incidents are ingenious and well wrought together. 
This work opens a new field of enterprise to the gifted and 
versatile 2M\hor&s,s.' ' ^Jat/iestozvn Journal. 

" This effort in the line of romance shows her power. 
Her pen is her weapon. She has shown what she can do. 
Her coming story, ' By Whose Hand ? ' will be looked for 
with interest It goes without saying that every ad- 
vantage that the plot presents is taken. The detail work of 
the story is above criticism. ' From the introspective to the 
mystical is but a step.' This step has been taken by one of 
the brightest women this country has seen." — Buff'alo 
News. 

" ' By a Hair's Breadth' is ingenious, free from affectation, 
and told with a degree of freshness and originality." — 
N. Y. S7in. 

" It is the reportorial capacity wonderfully developed in 
Robert Fleming, the immensely clever reporter, that works 
up the Paul Raymond murder. ' By a Hair's Breadth ' has 
merit, and Edith Sessions Tupper's hero knows by exper- 
ience the advantages to be derived from the plentiful use of 
the blue lead pencil." — N Y. Times. 

" One of the brightest little stories that has come to us in 
some time. A terse dramatic style combined with the ability 
of painting striking descriptions with a touch of the brush 
shows that Mrs. Tupper is an artist of no mean ability, and 
her future work will be awaited with interest. Heretofore 
her work has been confined to lyrical poetry, but the story 
field should know her soon again." — Morning Journal. 




VENICE. 

i'voin ''^ On the M'in^ J'/irouxh F.uro/'t!.^^ 



EDITIONS OF 

®he ^0vh» 0f (fLhaviea (Bhtvavti '^avn»* 



A VENETIAN STUDY 

IN BLACK AND WHITE: 

A d}'a7na-novel of stirring incident, clever intrigue, 
with a plot of startling developmetit, the scenes 
shifting fro?n Gotham to the city of the Doges, 

DIGBY: CHESS PROFESSOR: 

A happy and tmique drama-novel of N'ew York life, 
the interest centering in an exciting gajne of chess. 

A DISILLUSIONED OCCULTIST: 

An East Indian episode, gathering interest f'oni 
a hoiue-boiind student of Hindu occultisms, and the 
recital of his tragic history. 

THIRTY-FIVE CENTS EACH, POST-PAID. 



THE AMARANTH AND the BERYL : 

A volume of poetical works. 

SOLITARIUS TO HIS D^MON : 

7'houghts and reflections of a thinker hi search of 

new truths in nature and the heart of man, 

i2mo. Bond parchment-paper binding, exquisitely 

printed on antique laid paper, with 

engraved title-pages, etc. 

FIFTY CENTS PER COPY. 
NOW RE A D Y. 



THE PITH OF A FEW ADVANCE 

PRESS NOTICES: 



"^ Bams' works appeal lo the more thoughtful class cf 
readers. "—71/<'rr?/ rj. 

" These poems are the T'-oduct of a deep dramatic in- 
stinct. . . . ' Solitarius to his Djiemon ' is an excellent prose 
work. "-- Telegra m. 

" Mr. Barns' writings show the man of thought and 
culture . . . Solitarius is a work worthy of admiration. In 
this his talents show to advantage.'-- 7^/^ rwrt/. 

" A work of high philosophy."— /"r <'.?.?. 

" They touch a responsive chord, and furnish food for 
many a fanciful reverie." — News and Courier. 

" Vigorous, equally clever, and abounding in the re- 
sults of much reading and thinking." — Brooklyji Eagle. 

" Barns is a delightful essayist, and between his well- 
rounded periods is a rich mine of thought and philosophy, 
expressed in a most pleasing and impressive form. One of 
those books which is as pleasing in a second reading as in the 

first. . . .The poems are full of genius of the true point 

Our readers will find in these books a surprise and a de- 
light." — Christian at Work. 

" These drama-novels display much curious learning and 
a quaint humor." — N, V. Sun. 

" These works will prove a valuable addition to any 
library." — Sa7i Francisco Call, 




hrum "IN WESTERN LEVANT.' 



" Barns has a fertile pen. His drama-novels are pro- 
fv.se in popular character, story and learning, written with 
marvellous fluency.", . .—Brooklyn Eagle. 

" Bams is capable of c.xxellent word-painting, admira- 
ble technique, and moreover, a noticeably sweet and tender 

versification Many of the poems combine a vigorous and 

rich harmony with virility and manly sentiment."— PZ/Z/a- 
delpJi I a Tra nscript. 

" In spite of many defects, it is more than borne upon 
the reader that here are books wifh a genuine message for 
the world. The writer is humble, earnest and hopeful ; not 
daunted by conventions, nor driven into mistaking them for 
truths, but yet respectful of them, acknowledging their place 
in the world. His reading has been wide, if not indeed pro- 
found, and has furnished him with a rich treasury of refer- 
ence and allusion, and more than all, he is a sturdy promoter 
of manliness,— a virtue more than slightly underrated by 
many of his contemporaries. ...Barns will find many x&sA- 
er^.^'—Bosion Herald. 

" Barns' books are unique, exciting, and beautiful 
specimens of their art."— /'/i/ya. North American. 

" They cannot but be appreciated by all who seek real 
literary gems.'*— 5a« Francisco Chronicle. 

" A new writer has sprung into enviable prominence — 
a young poet, philosopher, and novelist, who has produced a 
series of volumes sufficiently original in thought and admir- 
able in quality to merit the above titles These writings 

have been remarkably amiably handled by the critics through- 
out the country, considering that they abound in crudities 
and literary faults ; but they are the errors of a genius. Not 
a single page of his books but bears an individuality not to be 
mistaken. . . . A sincere student of nature in all its phases. As 
Bams is young, and has had exceptional advantages as re- 
gards study and travel, there is no reason why, with his tal- 
ents, he should not become an important factor in the litera- 
ture of the country. . ..''—New York Graphic. 




t,V.D«"^'n«».. 



A^ISTERDA^r. 

From " On the Wing Through Europe.''' 




A MOROCCAX WELL 



" ' Solitarius' is a series of thoughtful, quaintly writ- 
ten essays These drama-novels are readable and pleasing 

productions by an author who revels in the eccentric The 

volumss are choice in design, and are the very flower of the 
printer's art."' — New Orleans Picayune. 

" These productions are thoroughly unique."~C^i- 
cago Inter-Ocean. 

" The drama-novels are awake and alive ; and that is 
no small virtue when so many published books are torpid. . . 
' The Venetian Study ' is logical and impressive. The works 
of this author must be regarded as very ■^tomvsing.'"— Boston 
Herald. 

" The drama-novels are capital stories, well told, and 
equally brilliant." — Evening Telegram. 

" Barns is both a philosopher and a poet. His prose is 
statelj'^, strong, and graceful ; his poems are exalted in tone, 

majestic in style The drama-novels are the productions 

of a master of English, an artist in description, and display 

a rare versatihty This young author's work is introduced 

to the public in a most attractive form The series is of 

great vsXxxe."— Minneapolis Jourtial. 

■ " Barns is thoroughly in earnest, and is filled with the 
consciousness of the solemnity of his mission, and of the ur- 
gent need there is in the world for the truth his art would 

teach The poems show a true, workmanlike touch, and 

'Solitarius' is a work of truth and briUiancy," — Chicago 
Tribune, 

" The author of these books has read much, travelled 
widely, and thought deeply, and is enabled to use these con- 
ditions with effect in his writings which are elevated in tone, 
in philosophy breathing a hoper.'l, independent spirit, while 
the reader is not allowed to fcrget that he is an American. . . 
The poems are distinguished by an elevation of sentiment, 
and a defin He purpose."— .(4 /iJaw^ Journal. 



•' Barns is a thoughtful man and a skilful workman. The 
French, it is plain, have not a monopoly of epigrams. His 
works are worth reading for their thoughtfulness and their 
suggestiveness, a line often standing for a whole page, and 
occult thoughts are put in so rational a way as to disarm 
criticism aud charm acceptance. As to eccentricities— well, 
who would live forever in a dull, flat country." — Christian 
Union. 

"The versatility of this author is shown by the simultaneous 
issue of three volumes entirely distinct in scope and style. 
.... The novels show dramatic power and a weirdness of 
imagination. . . The poems are reflective and philosophic 
often, and show a poetic fancy combined with depth of 
feeling. In ' Solitarius' there are scattered gems of thought, 
suggestive and inspiring." — Brooklyn Tiines. 

" What a drama-novel is can only be imagined by one 
who has had the pleasure of reading Mr. Barns. . . . They 
are written in a light and amusing style. They are wel- 
come." — Nassau Lit, Review,, Princeton College, 

"Ambitious in its serious thoughtfulness. His evider.t 
honesty and high purpose makes us wish him all they 
merit."— Cr/V/V. 

" Well worthy all the refinements of the book-maker's 
art which they bear. Satire and wisdom alternate with 
commonplace phrases ; but there is real thought beneath the 
words, and many of the strangest sentences are full of sug- 
gestion. Mr. Barns has had exceptional advatanges and 
wide experience of many kinds of life, and he has evidently 
thought much before he has written at dW.'"— Writer, 

" New York's Rising Litterateur." — Article in Chicago 
Herald. 

" These several works bear an individuality not to be 
mistaken. Of Mr. Barns' critics the hypercritical admit 
that here is an author who gives extraordinary promise of 
the future." — The Author, Boston. 






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Fror.i "IN WKSTERX LEVANT." 








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